Medical Watch Digest for Oct 2

AI and autism diagnosis

Artificial intelligence helping to diagnose autism.

An autism diagnosis can be tricky and for some it can take years. Now a new tool may be able to spot the disorder in 10 minutes while children play on a tablet.

Duke University doctors developed an app to help screen for autism.

Children play a bubble popping game that has serious benefits. The app measures and weighs a variety of distinct behavior indicators for autism, accurately reflecting the complexity and variability in each child.  

 It’s called “Sense to Know” and developers say it is easy to use.

The AI not only makes a potential diagnosis for the autism spectrum disorder but also indicates exactly how it reached the diagnosis.

Weight & Heart Disease

Weight leads to heart disease in both men and women and now experts say they know why.

Fat on the outside is also circulating in the blood inside the body.

A new study by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine reveals the high fat concentrations clog arteries increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease. The rampant internal fats also increase the likelihood for diabetes, inflammation and high blood pressure.

BU study authors also found when patients lost weight, the circulating fats decreased as well as inflammation.

Blood Pressure & Sleep

Sleep problems may have nothing to do with insomnia.

A new study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital doctors reveals a link between high blood pressure and symptoms of insomnia in women.

Study authors say women who have difficulty sleeping should seek out preemptive screening for hypertension.

Researchers studied more than 66,000 people between the ages of 25 and 42 over 16 years.

They found women who slept less than seven hours a night had difficulty falling or staying asleep or woke very early in the morning, had a higher body mass index, lower physical activity and poor diets.

They were also more likely to smoke and drink alcohol and subsequently had higher blood pressure.