We need your help: ANZAN 2022

ANZAN 2022 is just around the corner and we need your help covering key Australian studies and highlights from the meeting.

In February, the limbic contacted the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists for media access to their Annual Scientific Meeting so we could share the latest updates in your specialty.

For reasons unknown to us we were unable to secure a media pass, but we’re still keen to cover your research and conference content.

If you’re presenting or publishing ideas, results and practical insights at ANZAN 2022 and want your work underscored for your Australian colleagues, we want to hear from you.

Please email us at editor@thelimbic.com.

Pendulum swings away from aspirin for primary CVD prevention

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has tightened its recommendations on the use of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease.

It concludes that aspirin use has a small net benefit in the primary prevention of CVD events in adults aged 40 to 59 years who have a 10% or greater 10-year CVD risk, based on a CVD risk calculator.

However aspirin use for the primary prevention of CVD events in adults 60 years or older has no net benefit given the increasing risk of bleeding with older age.

It said for people who have initiated aspirin use, the net benefits continue to accrue overtime in the absence of a bleeding event.

“The net benefits, however, generally become progressively smaller with advancing age because of an increased risk for bleeding, and modeling data suggest that it may be reasonable to consider stopping aspirin use around age 75 years.”

Read more in JAMA

TGA lifts ban on ‘mad cow disease’ blood donors 

Citizens previously considered to be at risk of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease can now donate blood in Australia following a relaxation of TGA rules.

Since December 2000 people who had spent six months or more in the UK between 1980 and 1996 were prevented from donating blood due to the risk of acquiring human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).

The TGA confirmed the ban had been lifted.

“This decision, which relates to both blood and plasma products, was based on a detailed evaluation of epidemiological data, the relevant scientific literature and was supported by expert advice,” a spokesperson told the ABC.

“Lifeblood is currently working with its stakeholders on the implementation of this decision.”