It has been suggested that statins could boost the chances of survival of patients with sepsis because of their multipronged effects on inflammation. Here, researchers from China used the MIMIC-IV database to perform a retrospective cohort study on two large, matched groups: critically ill patients with sepsis in the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who received standard of care with or without statins. The 28-day all-cause mortality was 39% lower in relative terms [an absolute reduction from 23.4% to 14.3%] in the statin group, suggesting a protective effect. Previous randomized controlled trials that didn’t find any such benefit might have been too small or have had other weaknesses. The present results need to be confirmed in a large, well-designed randomized clinical trial.

Nearly one-third of people who adopted and adhered to a healthy diet did not lose any weight, but still reaped many health benefits, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Ben Gurion University, Israel. Independent of weight reduction, study participants showed significant improvements in cardiometabolic markers, including higher HDL cholesterol (the healthy type of cholesterol), lower levels of leptin (the hormone that signals hunger), and less visceral fat (belly fat found deep inside the abdominal cavity, sometimes wrapping around organs).

In a study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, researchers created a model of XMEA, a rare inherited disease, and show that their mutant zebrafish have weakened muscles and other symptoms that mirror human XMEA disease. This simple model was used to test 30 clinically tested drugs and identify two that significantly improved XMEA symptoms in the zebrafish. The researchers are now studying the VMA21 mutation in a mammalian model, the mouse, to further push research toward a possible clinical treatment.

Ochsner Health is proud to announce Abdul Khan, MD, has been named the new chief executive officer of Ochsner River Region, effective June 1.