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The epidemiology of sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs) was turned on its head Thursday, with research showing that in reality, ischemic cardiac disease is not the leading driver of SCDs, as previously thought. (Lou, 4/23)

After months of dizziness and arms aching so badly she could barely walk her dog, Susan Glannan lay stunned in a sunny hospital room as a doctor told her she should have open heart surgery. The idea of a surgeon cracking her chest open and stopping her heart terrified her. Glannan, who was 64, lived alone. She didn’t have her affairs in order. And just four years earlier, she had had a procedure that she thought would take care of her heart problem—a diseased aortic valve. “I was disappointed and scared,” she said, “and I started worrying, ‘Do I have a will?’” (McKay, 4/23)

Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death in the United States, but it is rare that cancer makes its way to the heart. It’s an observation that clinicians have been grateful for, though largely unable to explain. But in a paper published Thursday in Science, researchers propose one potential explanation: The constant pressure that the organ is under from beating thousands of times a day and pushing gallons of blood creates an environment that is hostile to cancers. (Oza, 4/23)

More than two in five U.S. adults have prediabetes, a condition marked by higher-than-normal blood sugar levels that often leads to type 2 diabetes. A new study finds that vitamin D may help delay or prevent that progression, but only in people with certain genetic variations. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found prediabetic adults with certain variations in the vitamin D receptor gene had a 19% lower risk of developing diabetes when taking a high daily dose of vitamin D. (4/23)

A single-engine turboprop from the Royal Flying Doctor Service landed in Port Augusta, its white fuselage standing out against the red desert at the edge of Australia’s vast interior. Among the cargo unloaded onto the tarmac was a brain scanner barely the size of a carry-on bag. The device, resembling a compact astronaut’s helmet, is designed to diagnose stroke in the field — telling clinicians whether it’s a clot or a bleed so the right treatment can begin before brain cells start to die. That distinction typically requires a CT scan in a hospital, meaning patients in remote areas can wait hours for a diagnosis. (Gale, 4/24)

Researchers at City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment organization, and the University of California, Berkeley, have created a novel microfluidic platform that can assess women's breast cancer risk at the cellular level. The first-of-its-kind platform squeezes individual breast epithelial cells, creating a taxing environment to measure how they deform, recover, and behave under stress, according to a new study published in eBioMedicine. (4/23)

Why do memories fade in Alzheimer's disease—and can they be restored? University of California, Irvine researchers have uncovered a key mechanism underlying memory loss, showing for the first time that dopamine dysfunction in the entorhinal cortex, a critical memory-related brain region, contributes directly to impaired memory formation. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, identifies a previously unrecognized role for dopamine in Alzheimer's-related cognitive decline and points to potential therapeutic strategies using existing drugs such as Levodopa. (4/23)

A novel strategy that combines computational and experimental approaches has allowed researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children's Hospital to distinguish alterations in gene function that contribute to Parkinson's disease from those that protect from the condition. The study, published in Neurobiology of Disease, revealed novel risk factors and previously unrecognized therapeutic targets, offering hope for a future in which effective therapies will be available to prevent, slow down or stop this devastating disease. (4/23)

A combination blood stem cell and pancreatic islet cell transplant from an immunologically mismatched donor completely prevented or cured type 1 diabetes in mice in a study by Stanford Medicine researchers. Type 1 diabetes arises when the immune system mistakenly destroys insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas. None of the animals developed graft-versus-host disease—in which the immune system arising from the donated blood stem cells attacks healthy tissue in the recipient—and the destruction of islet cells by the native host immune system was halted. After the transplants, the animals did not require the use of the immune-suppressive drugs or insulin for the duration of the six-month experiment. (4/23)

A composite measure of healthy sleep—which captured not just how long people sleep but how well and how consistently—is associated with a substantially lower risk of pneumonia, according to a long-term cohort study published this week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. For the prospective analysis, Chinese researchers examined health data from 361,589 adults in the United Kingdom. Those with the healthiest overall sleep patterns had a 26% lower risk of developing pneumonia over roughly 13 years of follow-up than those with the poorest sleep profiles. (Bergeson, 4/23)

A freeze-dried blood product that could be stored for years on ambulances or in remote emergency departments is showing promise at treating traumatic brain injuries. The news comes from a mouse study done by researchers at UC San Francisco. If it pans out in people, it could answer a huge unmet need for therapies that treat these injuries, which are the leading cause of death in people under 44 years old. A research paper on this topic is published in the Blood Journal. (4/23)

Should academic journals begin to second guess guest editors? That question gained new urgency last week when the British Medical Journal’s publishing group retracted nearly its entire guest-edited special edition of the Journal of Medical Genetics, dedicated to cancer immunotherapies. (Oza, 4/24)