In Global News: Festive Hypotheses, New Lungs for Singing, and Mice Exercising With Marfan Syndrome [1]
Patient Care
The Venezuelan singer known by the nickname “El Puma” is recovering after a double lung transplant [3] for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
A Bangladeshi woman has received a new esophagus in Toronto, Canada [4], after her esophagus was severely damaged in an acid attack.
Dutch cyclist Lars Boom will miss the Tour Down Under [5] in Adelaide, South Australia, as he undergoes surgery for cardiac arrhythmia. Lithuanian cyclist Ramūnas Navardauskas will make the tour [6], having recovered from his surgical arrhythmia correction.
Drugs and Devices
Three reports of detached docking buttons on the Nanostim leadless pacemaker [7] lead Abbott to announce that it is maintaining the worldwide halt on device implantations while it investigates.
Research, Trials, and Funding
In a bit of festive fun, researchers at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, suggest testable—if improbable—hypotheses for some of the scientific oddities in popular Christmas stories [8], such as the Grinch’s rapidly growing heart.
In case you needed more reason to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, a study published in the European Respiratory Journal [9] found an association between a person’s apple and tomato consumption and their lung health [10].
Mice with a genetic modification that models Marfan syndrome benefit from a bit of moderate exercise [11], say researchers from Spain.