Women are less likely to receive active management for the same medical conditions as men, according to research published in PLOS One.
Miriam Veenhuizen, MD, an honorary lecturer in University of St. Andrews School of Medicine, and colleagues reviewed 41 papers, 38 of which were retrospective case series that evaluated patient records. Thirty-three reported finding “a significant difference” in the treatment of men and women patients.
This was consistent across many different specialties. Major disparities included:
Veenhuizen told Healio the research is “important for healthcare providers both

DENVER — Sibeprenlimab-szsi was associated with preserved kidney function vs. placebo at 2 years, according to study data presented at ASN Kidney Week.
In addition, sibeprenlimab-szsi reduced risks for kidney function decline or kidney failure by 97%, according to Dana Rizk, MD, professor of medicine in the division of nephrology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“We nephrologists have always talked about slowing down disease progression, but we’ve rarely talked about halting a disease,” Rizk told Healio. “We need to have longer-term data, but within the

Physicians prescribing peptides that have not been FDA approved continue to face a myriad of potential legal and regulatory risks.
While prescribing FDA-approved semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Nordisk) and tirzepatide (Zepbound and Mounjaro, Eli Lilly) for their approved uses presents few regulatory issues for physicians, many other unapproved peptides prescribed and promoted for various uses are currently being produced by compounding pharmacies.
Physicians who prescribe, source, promote or administer peptides that are not FDA approved or have not been included in FDA’s bulk substances

SAN DIEGO — There was a consistent association between the severity of anxiety and pain related to Parkinson’s disease, according to a poster presented at the 151st Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association.
The study was conducted in Tbilisi, Georgia, where mental illness carries a significant stigma, Gvantsa Khodeli, MD, a PhD candidate at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, told Healio.
“In my country and other post-Soviet countries, it’s like a taboo,” she said.
“This is important because Parkinson’s patient cohorts are older patients,” she continued. “They think that if they go

CHICAGO — Among adults with prediabetes and obesity, those taking a GLP-1 receptor agonist were more likely to achieve normoglycemia compared with those taking metformin, researchers reported.
Those taking a GLP-1 were also had reduced risk for death, CV outcomes and progression to type 2 diabetes compared with those taking metformin, according to the results.
“Nearly 40% of U.S. adults have [prediabetes], and up to 10% progress to diabetes each year,” Vinicius de Sousa Barzon Serra, MD, research fellow in the department of cardiovascular medicine at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, told

Featuring clinical insights and case-based interactive sessions, the Obesity in Practice meeting will be held on Kiawah Island in South Carolina from April 30 to May 2, targeting a multidisciplinary group of clinicians.
“Physicians, advanced practice professionals, dietitians, exercise specialists, behavioral health professionals and pharmacists who treat patients with obesity [will] benefit from attending the meeting,” program director Robert F. Kushner, MD, told Healio. “The meeting is purposely designed for optimal learning by combining short didactic presentations with panel discussions

CHICAGO — In a long-term study, menopausal hormone therapy did not raise risk for heart attack, stroke, blood clots or death in women aged 45 to 59 years, researchers reported at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.
“In November 2025, the FDA removed the black box warning from hormone replacement therapy products, and we have since seen a steep rise in the number of women starting hormone therapy (HT). Much of that momentum is driven by media coverage and social media rather than by clinical consultation. Because the original warning bundled cardiovascular disease together with

Time to exacerbation, cardiovascular event or death did not differ between patients with COPD and no cardiovascular disease receiving metoprolol plus standard care vs. only standard care, according to data published in NEJM Evidence.
These results were simultaneously presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.
“These findings are consistent with previous randomized trials of beta-blocker therapy in COPD [Dransfield MT, et al, Devereux G, et al, Jenkins CR, et al], which were limited by early termination or insufficient power,” Josefin Sundh, MD, PhD, adjunct university

Among infants with a history of reaction to peanut and a positive allergy test planning to start oral immunotherapy, 34.8% had a negative oral food challenge, according to study findings.
These data were published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.
“History and allergy testing alone aren’t enough to diagnose peanut allergy in many infants,” Timothy Brettig, MBBS, PhD, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Population Allergy Group senior research clinician and Allergy Development to an Accelerated Path to Tolerance (ADAPT) program medical lead, told Healio.
“For the

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A novel blood test could work just as effectively as the use of fecal elastase in diagnosing exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, according to a study presented at ACG Annual Scientific Meeting.
“Currently, fecal elastase is the recommended diagnostic test,” Medora D. Rodrigues, MD, MPH, a fellow at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and the study’s lead author, told Healio. “But it has limitations, including low completion rates of approximately 25% to 40% and falsely low results in patients with watery diarrhea.”
Rodrigues and