Key clinical point: In patients with sentinel node (SN)-positive cT1-2 primary breast cancer (BC), both axillary radiotherapy (ART) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) led to similar recurrence rates, but the rate of lymphedema was lower with ART.

Major finding: The 10-year axillary recurrence rates were similar between the ALND and ART treatment groups (hazard ratio 1.71; 95% CI 0.67-4.39), with a lower proportion of patients reporting lymphedema in the ART vs  ALND group (28.6% vs  44.2%).

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, AMAROS trial including 1425 patients with clinically node-negative cT1-2 primary BC and a positive SN who were randomly assigned to receive ALND or ART.

Disclosures: This trial was sponsored by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. The authors declared serving in leadership, consulting, or advisory roles or receiving honoraria or travel, accommodation, and expenses from several sources.

Source: Bartels SAL, Donker M et al. Radiotherapy or surgery of the axilla after a positive sentinel node in breast cancer: 10-year results of the randomized controlled EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS trial. J Clin Oncol. 2022 (Nov 16). Doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.01565

Key clinical point: In patients with sentinel node (SN)-positive cT1-2 primary breast cancer (BC), both axillary radiotherapy (ART) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) led to similar recurrence rates, but the rate of lymphedema was lower with ART.

Major finding: The 10-year axillary recurrence rates were similar between the ALND and ART treatment groups (hazard ratio 1.71; 95% CI 0.67-4.39), with a lower proportion of patients reporting lymphedema in the ART vs  ALND group (28.6% vs  44.2%).

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, AMAROS trial including 1425 patients with clinically node-negative cT1-2 primary BC and a positive SN who were randomly assigned to receive ALND or ART.

Disclosures: This trial was sponsored by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. The authors declared serving in leadership, consulting, or advisory roles or receiving honoraria or travel, accommodation, and expenses from several sources.

Source: Bartels SAL, Donker M et al. Radiotherapy or surgery of the axilla after a positive sentinel node in breast cancer: 10-year results of the randomized controlled EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS trial. J Clin Oncol. 2022 (Nov 16). Doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.01565

Key clinical point: In patients with sentinel node (SN)-positive cT1-2 primary breast cancer (BC), both axillary radiotherapy (ART) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) led to similar recurrence rates, but the rate of lymphedema was lower with ART.

Major finding: The 10-year axillary recurrence rates were similar between the ALND and ART treatment groups (hazard ratio 1.71; 95% CI 0.67-4.39), with a lower proportion of patients reporting lymphedema in the ART vs  ALND group (28.6% vs  44.2%).

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, AMAROS trial including 1425 patients with clinically node-negative cT1-2 primary BC and a positive SN who were randomly assigned to receive ALND or ART.

Disclosures: This trial was sponsored by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. The authors declared serving in leadership, consulting, or advisory roles or receiving honoraria or travel, accommodation, and expenses from several sources.

Source: Bartels SAL, Donker M et al. Radiotherapy or surgery of the axilla after a positive sentinel node in breast cancer: 10-year results of the randomized controlled EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS trial. J Clin Oncol. 2022 (Nov 16). Doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.01565

Key clinical point: In patients with sentinel node (SN)-positive cT1-2 primary breast cancer (BC), both axillary radiotherapy (ART) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) led to similar recurrence rates, but the rate of lymphedema was lower with ART.

Major finding: The 10-year axillary recurrence rates were similar between the ALND and ART treatment groups (hazard ratio 1.71; 95% CI 0.67-4.39), with a lower proportion of patients reporting lymphedema in the ART vs  ALND group (28.6% vs  44.2%).

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, AMAROS trial including 1425 patients with clinically node-negative cT1-2 primary BC and a positive SN who were randomly assigned to receive ALND or ART.

Disclosures: This trial was sponsored by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. The authors declared serving in leadership, consulting, or advisory roles or receiving honoraria or travel, accommodation, and expenses from several sources.

Source: Bartels SAL, Donker M et al. Radiotherapy or surgery of the axilla after a positive sentinel node in breast cancer: 10-year results of the randomized controlled EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS trial. J Clin Oncol. 2022 (Nov 16). Doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.01565

Key clinical point: In patients with sentinel node (SN)-positive cT1-2 primary breast cancer (BC), both axillary radiotherapy (ART) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) led to similar recurrence rates, but the rate of lymphedema was lower with ART.

Major finding: The 10-year axillary recurrence rates were similar between the ALND and ART treatment groups (hazard ratio 1.71; 95% CI 0.67-4.39), with a lower proportion of patients reporting lymphedema in the ART vs  ALND group (28.6% vs  44.2%).

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, AMAROS trial including 1425 patients with clinically node-negative cT1-2 primary BC and a positive SN who were randomly assigned to receive ALND or ART.

Disclosures: This trial was sponsored by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. The authors declared serving in leadership, consulting, or advisory roles or receiving honoraria or travel, accommodation, and expenses from several sources.

Source: Bartels SAL, Donker M et al. Radiotherapy or surgery of the axilla after a positive sentinel node in breast cancer: 10-year results of the randomized controlled EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS trial. J Clin Oncol. 2022 (Nov 16). Doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.01565

Key clinical point: In patients with sentinel node (SN)-positive cT1-2 primary breast cancer (BC), both axillary radiotherapy (ART) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) led to similar recurrence rates, but the rate of lymphedema was lower with ART.

Major finding: The 10-year axillary recurrence rates were similar between the ALND and ART treatment groups (hazard ratio 1.71; 95% CI 0.67-4.39), with a lower proportion of patients reporting lymphedema in the ART vs  ALND group (28.6% vs  44.2%).

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, AMAROS trial including 1425 patients with clinically node-negative cT1-2 primary BC and a positive SN who were randomly assigned to receive ALND or ART.

Disclosures: This trial was sponsored by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. The authors declared serving in leadership, consulting, or advisory roles or receiving honoraria or travel, accommodation, and expenses from several sources.

Source: Bartels SAL, Donker M et al. Radiotherapy or surgery of the axilla after a positive sentinel node in breast cancer: 10-year results of the randomized controlled EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS trial. J Clin Oncol. 2022 (Nov 16). Doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.01565

Key clinical point: The relative risk for anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) was significantly increased in women who underwent implant reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer (BC) or ductal carcinoma in situ.

Major finding: The relative risk for ALCL (standardized incidence ratio [SIR] 40.9; 95% CI 13.3-95.5) and T-cell lymphoma (SIR 34.8; 95% CI 12.8-75.8) increased significantly after postmastectomy implant reconstruction.

Study details: This study evaluated 56,784 women with ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast (18%) or invasive BC (72%) from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 17 database who had undergone postmastectomy implant reconstruction.

Disclosures: This study did not report a source of funding. The authors declared serving as consultants or receiving grants, royalties, licenses, or personal fees from several sources.

Source: Kinslow CJ et al. Risk of anaplastic large cell lymphoma following postmastectomy implant reconstruction in women with breast cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(11):e2243396 (Nov 22). Doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.43396

Key clinical point: The relative risk for anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) was significantly increased in women who underwent implant reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer (BC) or ductal carcinoma in situ.

Major finding: The relative risk for ALCL (standardized incidence ratio [SIR] 40.9; 95% CI 13.3-95.5) and T-cell lymphoma (SIR 34.8; 95% CI 12.8-75.8) increased significantly after postmastectomy implant reconstruction.

Study details: This study evaluated 56,784 women with ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast (18%) or invasive BC (72%) from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 17 database who had undergone postmastectomy implant reconstruction.

Disclosures: This study did not report a source of funding. The authors declared serving as consultants or receiving grants, royalties, licenses, or personal fees from several sources.

Source: Kinslow CJ et al. Risk of anaplastic large cell lymphoma following postmastectomy implant reconstruction in women with breast cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(11):e2243396 (Nov 22). Doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.43396

Key clinical point: The relative risk for anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) was significantly increased in women who underwent implant reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer (BC) or ductal carcinoma in situ.

Major finding: The relative risk for ALCL (standardized incidence ratio [SIR] 40.9; 95% CI 13.3-95.5) and T-cell lymphoma (SIR 34.8; 95% CI 12.8-75.8) increased significantly after postmastectomy implant reconstruction.

Study details: This study evaluated 56,784 women with ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast (18%) or invasive BC (72%) from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 17 database who had undergone postmastectomy implant reconstruction.

Disclosures: This study did not report a source of funding. The authors declared serving as consultants or receiving grants, royalties, licenses, or personal fees from several sources.

Source: Kinslow CJ et al. Risk of anaplastic large cell lymphoma following postmastectomy implant reconstruction in women with breast cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(11):e2243396 (Nov 22). Doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.43396

Key clinical point: Adjuvant abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy (ET) reduced the risk for recurrence and demonstrated a favorable safety profile in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2−) early breast cancer (BC) at a high risk for recurrence.

Major finding: Abemaciclib+ET helped sustain the invasive disease-free survival benefit compared with only ET even at 42 months of median follow-up (hazard ratio 0.664; nominal P < .0001). Although the frequency of grade ≥3 adverse events was higher with abemaciclib+ET (49.9%) vs  ET alone (16.9%), it was considered manageable and acceptable for patients with high-risk early BC.

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, monarchE trial including 5637 patients with HR+/HER2−, node-positive, early BC who were randomly assigned to receive adjuvant ET with or without abemaciclib.

Disclosures: This study was funded by Eli Lilly. Five authors declared being employees and shareholders of Eli Lilly, and the other authors reported ties with several sources, including Eli Lilly.

Source: Johnston SRD et al on behalf of the monarchE Committee Members. Abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy for hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, high-risk early breast cancer (monarchE): Results from a preplanned interim analysis of a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2022 (Dec 6). Doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00694-5

Key clinical point: Adjuvant abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy (ET) reduced the risk for recurrence and demonstrated a favorable safety profile in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2−) early breast cancer (BC) at a high risk for recurrence.

Major finding: Abemaciclib+ET helped sustain the invasive disease-free survival benefit compared with only ET even at 42 months of median follow-up (hazard ratio 0.664; nominal P < .0001). Although the frequency of grade ≥3 adverse events was higher with abemaciclib+ET (49.9%) vs  ET alone (16.9%), it was considered manageable and acceptable for patients with high-risk early BC.

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, monarchE trial including 5637 patients with HR+/HER2−, node-positive, early BC who were randomly assigned to receive adjuvant ET with or without abemaciclib.

Disclosures: This study was funded by Eli Lilly. Five authors declared being employees and shareholders of Eli Lilly, and the other authors reported ties with several sources, including Eli Lilly.

Source: Johnston SRD et al on behalf of the monarchE Committee Members. Abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy for hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, high-risk early breast cancer (monarchE): Results from a preplanned interim analysis of a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2022 (Dec 6). Doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00694-5

Key clinical point: Adjuvant abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy (ET) reduced the risk for recurrence and demonstrated a favorable safety profile in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2−) early breast cancer (BC) at a high risk for recurrence.

Major finding: Abemaciclib+ET helped sustain the invasive disease-free survival benefit compared with only ET even at 42 months of median follow-up (hazard ratio 0.664; nominal P < .0001). Although the frequency of grade ≥3 adverse events was higher with abemaciclib+ET (49.9%) vs  ET alone (16.9%), it was considered manageable and acceptable for patients with high-risk early BC.

Study details: Findings are from the phase 3, monarchE trial including 5637 patients with HR+/HER2−, node-positive, early BC who were randomly assigned to receive adjuvant ET with or without abemaciclib.

Disclosures: This study was funded by Eli Lilly. Five authors declared being employees and shareholders of Eli Lilly, and the other authors reported ties with several sources, including Eli Lilly.

Source: Johnston SRD et al on behalf of the monarchE Committee Members. Abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy for hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, high-risk early breast cancer (monarchE): Results from a preplanned interim analysis of a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2022 (Dec 6). Doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00694-5

Key clinical point: In patients with high-risk early breast cancer (BC), a dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy improved disease-free survival (DFS), whereas the addition of fluorouracil to the chemotherapy regimen failed to demonstrate any survival benefits.

Major finding: After a median follow-up of 15.1 years, the median DFS was similar with and without the addition of fluorouracil to the combination therapy of epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel (EC-P; log-rank P = .11) and was significantly improved in the dose-dense vs  standard interval group (hazard ratio 0.77; P = .0004). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were neutropenia and alopecia.

Study details: Findings are end of study results from the GIM2 trial including 2091 patients with node-positive early BC who were randomly assigned to receive standard-interval EC-P, standard-interval fluorouracil+EC-P (FEC-P), dose-dense EC-P, or dose-dense FEC-P.

Disclosures: This study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia, Dompè Biotec Italy, Italian Ministry of Health, Fondazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro, and Alliance Against Cancer. The authors declared receiving fees, research grants, honoraria, or support for attending meetings or travel from several sources.

Source: Del Mastro L et al on behalf of the Gruppo Italiano Mammella Investigators. Fluorouracil and dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer (GIM2): End-of-study results from a randomised, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2022;23(12):1571-1582 (Nov 9). Doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00632-5

Key clinical point: In patients with high-risk early breast cancer (BC), a dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy improved disease-free survival (DFS), whereas the addition of fluorouracil to the chemotherapy regimen failed to demonstrate any survival benefits.

Major finding: After a median follow-up of 15.1 years, the median DFS was similar with and without the addition of fluorouracil to the combination therapy of epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel (EC-P; log-rank P = .11) and was significantly improved in the dose-dense vs  standard interval group (hazard ratio 0.77; P = .0004). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were neutropenia and alopecia.

Study details: Findings are end of study results from the GIM2 trial including 2091 patients with node-positive early BC who were randomly assigned to receive standard-interval EC-P, standard-interval fluorouracil+EC-P (FEC-P), dose-dense EC-P, or dose-dense FEC-P.

Disclosures: This study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia, Dompè Biotec Italy, Italian Ministry of Health, Fondazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro, and Alliance Against Cancer. The authors declared receiving fees, research grants, honoraria, or support for attending meetings or travel from several sources.

Source: Del Mastro L et al on behalf of the Gruppo Italiano Mammella Investigators. Fluorouracil and dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer (GIM2): End-of-study results from a randomised, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2022;23(12):1571-1582 (Nov 9). Doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00632-5

Key clinical point: In patients with high-risk early breast cancer (BC), a dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy improved disease-free survival (DFS), whereas the addition of fluorouracil to the chemotherapy regimen failed to demonstrate any survival benefits.

Major finding: After a median follow-up of 15.1 years, the median DFS was similar with and without the addition of fluorouracil to the combination therapy of epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel (EC-P; log-rank P = .11) and was significantly improved in the dose-dense vs  standard interval group (hazard ratio 0.77; P = .0004). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were neutropenia and alopecia.

Study details: Findings are end of study results from the GIM2 trial including 2091 patients with node-positive early BC who were randomly assigned to receive standard-interval EC-P, standard-interval fluorouracil+EC-P (FEC-P), dose-dense EC-P, or dose-dense FEC-P.

Disclosures: This study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia, Dompè Biotec Italy, Italian Ministry of Health, Fondazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro, and Alliance Against Cancer. The authors declared receiving fees, research grants, honoraria, or support for attending meetings or travel from several sources.

Source: Del Mastro L et al on behalf of the Gruppo Italiano Mammella Investigators. Fluorouracil and dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer (GIM2): End-of-study results from a randomised, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2022;23(12):1571-1582 (Nov 9). Doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00632-5

Patients with acute ischemic stroke had a worse prognosis if they had also experienced severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), based on data from 125 individuals.

OSA is on the rise, and is associated with pathophysiological changes, and data from previous studies suggest that severe OSA doubles the risk of stroke and increases risk of stroke recurrence, according to Juan Xu, PhD, of Soochow University, Suzhou, China, and colleagues.

“There is a high comorbidity between stroke and OSA,” and effective sleep is important to cerebral function recovery, the researchers wrote. Early prediction of stroke prognosis may inform treatment in stroke patients, but the value of OSA as a predictor of functional prognosis has not been explored.

In a study published in Sleep Medicine, the researchers analyzed data from 125 adults with mild to moderate ischemic stroke and OSA. The participants underwent polysomnography within a week of stroke onset between January 2015 and June 2020 and were grouped by severity according to apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of either less than 30/h (not severe) or 30/h or higher (severe). The mean age of the patients was 58 years, and 87% were men. Approximately one-third of the participants met the criteria for severe OSA.

The researchers assessed the impact of OSA on functional prognosis in the acute phase of stroke, and reviewed quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) markers in stroke patients during sleep.

Overall, individuals with severe OSA were significantly more likely than those with less severe OSA to have comorbid hypertension (85.4% vs. 56%; P = .002) and a higher body mass index (28 vs. 24; P < .001). Other factors including blood pressure, smoking history, alcohol use, and comorbid diabetes were similar between the groups.

Quantitative EEG among patients with severe OSA showed lower relative power of high-frequency bands (alpha, beta, and sigma). The EEG also showed higher delta/alpha power ratio and slowing ratio, and higher delta relative power (delta RP) in severe OSA (P < .05 for all).

In addition, severe OSA was associated with more than triple the risk (3.6-fold increase) of poor prognosis, defined as a Modified Rankin Scale score of 3 or higher (24.4% for severe OSA vs. 8.3% for nonsevere OSA; P = .03).

“Our study confirmed that severe OSA is an independent risk factor for poor functional prognosis in the acute phase of ischemic stroke,” the researchers wrote. “Integrating the alteration of quantitative EEG parameters may improve the accuracy of early predictions of functional prognosis in patients with stroke.”

The findings were limited by several factors including the retrospective design and the lack of a sizable non-OSA control group, the researchers noted. Other limitations included the use of an AHI of 30/h or higher to define severity and the use of data from medical histories, with the potential for information bias, and the use of only 30-second continuous polysomnography segments.

However, the results suggest that increased delta RP and TSR, and decreased alpha, beta, and sigma RP, may be independent predictors of a poor functional prognosis in stroke patients with OSA, and that the prognosis could be improved by treating the OSA, they concluded.

The study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China and the Discipline Construction Program of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University. The researchers reported no financial conflicts.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Patients with acute ischemic stroke had a worse prognosis if they had also experienced severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), based on data from 125 individuals.

OSA is on the rise, and is associated with pathophysiological changes, and data from previous studies suggest that severe OSA doubles the risk of stroke and increases risk of stroke recurrence, according to Juan Xu, PhD, of Soochow University, Suzhou, China, and colleagues.

“There is a high comorbidity between stroke and OSA,” and effective sleep is important to cerebral function recovery, the researchers wrote. Early prediction of stroke prognosis may inform treatment in stroke patients, but the value of OSA as a predictor of functional prognosis has not been explored.

In a study published in Sleep Medicine, the researchers analyzed data from 125 adults with mild to moderate ischemic stroke and OSA. The participants underwent polysomnography within a week of stroke onset between January 2015 and June 2020 and were grouped by severity according to apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of either less than 30/h (not severe) or 30/h or higher (severe). The mean age of the patients was 58 years, and 87% were men. Approximately one-third of the participants met the criteria for severe OSA.

The researchers assessed the impact of OSA on functional prognosis in the acute phase of stroke, and reviewed quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) markers in stroke patients during sleep.

Overall, individuals with severe OSA were significantly more likely than those with less severe OSA to have comorbid hypertension (85.4% vs. 56%; P = .002) and a higher body mass index (28 vs. 24; P < .001). Other factors including blood pressure, smoking history, alcohol use, and comorbid diabetes were similar between the groups.

Quantitative EEG among patients with severe OSA showed lower relative power of high-frequency bands (alpha, beta, and sigma). The EEG also showed higher delta/alpha power ratio and slowing ratio, and higher delta relative power (delta RP) in severe OSA (P < .05 for all).

In addition, severe OSA was associated with more than triple the risk (3.6-fold increase) of poor prognosis, defined as a Modified Rankin Scale score of 3 or higher (24.4% for severe OSA vs. 8.3% for nonsevere OSA; P = .03).

“Our study confirmed that severe OSA is an independent risk factor for poor functional prognosis in the acute phase of ischemic stroke,” the researchers wrote. “Integrating the alteration of quantitative EEG parameters may improve the accuracy of early predictions of functional prognosis in patients with stroke.”

The findings were limited by several factors including the retrospective design and the lack of a sizable non-OSA control group, the researchers noted. Other limitations included the use of an AHI of 30/h or higher to define severity and the use of data from medical histories, with the potential for information bias, and the use of only 30-second continuous polysomnography segments.

However, the results suggest that increased delta RP and TSR, and decreased alpha, beta, and sigma RP, may be independent predictors of a poor functional prognosis in stroke patients with OSA, and that the prognosis could be improved by treating the OSA, they concluded.

The study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China and the Discipline Construction Program of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University. The researchers reported no financial conflicts.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Patients with acute ischemic stroke had a worse prognosis if they had also experienced severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), based on data from 125 individuals.

OSA is on the rise, and is associated with pathophysiological changes, and data from previous studies suggest that severe OSA doubles the risk of stroke and increases risk of stroke recurrence, according to Juan Xu, PhD, of Soochow University, Suzhou, China, and colleagues.

“There is a high comorbidity between stroke and OSA,” and effective sleep is important to cerebral function recovery, the researchers wrote. Early prediction of stroke prognosis may inform treatment in stroke patients, but the value of OSA as a predictor of functional prognosis has not been explored.

In a study published in Sleep Medicine, the researchers analyzed data from 125 adults with mild to moderate ischemic stroke and OSA. The participants underwent polysomnography within a week of stroke onset between January 2015 and June 2020 and were grouped by severity according to apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of either less than 30/h (not severe) or 30/h or higher (severe). The mean age of the patients was 58 years, and 87% were men. Approximately one-third of the participants met the criteria for severe OSA.

The researchers assessed the impact of OSA on functional prognosis in the acute phase of stroke, and reviewed quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) markers in stroke patients during sleep.

Overall, individuals with severe OSA were significantly more likely than those with less severe OSA to have comorbid hypertension (85.4% vs. 56%; P = .002) and a higher body mass index (28 vs. 24; P < .001). Other factors including blood pressure, smoking history, alcohol use, and comorbid diabetes were similar between the groups.

Quantitative EEG among patients with severe OSA showed lower relative power of high-frequency bands (alpha, beta, and sigma). The EEG also showed higher delta/alpha power ratio and slowing ratio, and higher delta relative power (delta RP) in severe OSA (P < .05 for all).

In addition, severe OSA was associated with more than triple the risk (3.6-fold increase) of poor prognosis, defined as a Modified Rankin Scale score of 3 or higher (24.4% for severe OSA vs. 8.3% for nonsevere OSA; P = .03).

“Our study confirmed that severe OSA is an independent risk factor for poor functional prognosis in the acute phase of ischemic stroke,” the researchers wrote. “Integrating the alteration of quantitative EEG parameters may improve the accuracy of early predictions of functional prognosis in patients with stroke.”

The findings were limited by several factors including the retrospective design and the lack of a sizable non-OSA control group, the researchers noted. Other limitations included the use of an AHI of 30/h or higher to define severity and the use of data from medical histories, with the potential for information bias, and the use of only 30-second continuous polysomnography segments.

However, the results suggest that increased delta RP and TSR, and decreased alpha, beta, and sigma RP, may be independent predictors of a poor functional prognosis in stroke patients with OSA, and that the prognosis could be improved by treating the OSA, they concluded.

The study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China and the Discipline Construction Program of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University. The researchers reported no financial conflicts.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

The study covered in this summary was published on Research Square as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.

Key takeaway

Patients with multiple myeloma were diagnosed at a significantly higher rate through emergency care during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with before.

Why this matters

While trying to avoid COVID-19 infection, patients ultimately diagnosed with multiple myeloma may have delayed interactions with healthcare professionals and consequently delayed their cancer diagnosis.

Study design

Researchers collected data on newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma from January 2019 until July 2021 across five institutions (three universities and two hospitals) in England. In total, 323 patients with multiple myeloma were identified.

Patients were divided into two groups: those diagnosed between Jan. 1, 2019, until Jan. 31, 2020, or pre-COVID, and those diagnosed from Feb. 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021, or post COVID.
 

Key results

Among all patients, 80 (24.8%) were diagnosed with smoldering multiple myeloma and 243 (75.2%) were diagnosed with multiple myeloma requiring treatment.

Significantly more patients in the post-COVID group were diagnosed with myeloma through the emergency route (45.5% post COVID vs. 32.7% pre-COVID; P = .03).

Clinical complications leading to emergency admission prior to a myeloma diagnosis also differed between the two cohorts: Acute kidney injury accounted for most emergency admissions in the pre-COVID cohort while skeletal-related events, including spinal cord compression, were the major causes for diagnosis through the emergency route in the post-COVID cohort.

Patients who were diagnosed with symptomatic myeloma pre-COVID were more likely to be treated with a triplet rather than doublet combination compared with those diagnosed in the post-COVID period (triplet pre-COVID 79.1%, post COVID 63.75%; P = .014).

Overall survival at 1 year was not significantly different between the pre-COVID and post-COVID groups: 88.2% pre-COVID, compared with 87.8% post COVID. 

Overall, the authors concluded that the COVID pandemic “resulted in a shift in the symptomatology, disease burden, and routes of diagnosis of patients presenting with myeloma” and “this may have significant consequences” over the long term.
 

Limitations

The study does not provide a clear time frame of delays in diagnosis.

Disclosures

The study authors did not report any conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com .

The study covered in this summary was published on Research Square as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.

Key takeaway

Patients with multiple myeloma were diagnosed at a significantly higher rate through emergency care during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with before.

Why this matters

While trying to avoid COVID-19 infection, patients ultimately diagnosed with multiple myeloma may have delayed interactions with healthcare professionals and consequently delayed their cancer diagnosis.

Study design

Researchers collected data on newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma from January 2019 until July 2021 across five institutions (three universities and two hospitals) in England. In total, 323 patients with multiple myeloma were identified.

Patients were divided into two groups: those diagnosed between Jan. 1, 2019, until Jan. 31, 2020, or pre-COVID, and those diagnosed from Feb. 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021, or post COVID.
 

Key results

Among all patients, 80 (24.8%) were diagnosed with smoldering multiple myeloma and 243 (75.2%) were diagnosed with multiple myeloma requiring treatment.

Significantly more patients in the post-COVID group were diagnosed with myeloma through the emergency route (45.5% post COVID vs. 32.7% pre-COVID; P = .03).

Clinical complications leading to emergency admission prior to a myeloma diagnosis also differed between the two cohorts: Acute kidney injury accounted for most emergency admissions in the pre-COVID cohort while skeletal-related events, including spinal cord compression, were the major causes for diagnosis through the emergency route in the post-COVID cohort.

Patients who were diagnosed with symptomatic myeloma pre-COVID were more likely to be treated with a triplet rather than doublet combination compared with those diagnosed in the post-COVID period (triplet pre-COVID 79.1%, post COVID 63.75%; P = .014).

Overall survival at 1 year was not significantly different between the pre-COVID and post-COVID groups: 88.2% pre-COVID, compared with 87.8% post COVID. 

Overall, the authors concluded that the COVID pandemic “resulted in a shift in the symptomatology, disease burden, and routes of diagnosis of patients presenting with myeloma” and “this may have significant consequences” over the long term.
 

Limitations

The study does not provide a clear time frame of delays in diagnosis.

Disclosures

The study authors did not report any conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com .

The study covered in this summary was published on Research Square as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.

Key takeaway

Patients with multiple myeloma were diagnosed at a significantly higher rate through emergency care during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with before.

Why this matters

While trying to avoid COVID-19 infection, patients ultimately diagnosed with multiple myeloma may have delayed interactions with healthcare professionals and consequently delayed their cancer diagnosis.

Study design

Researchers collected data on newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma from January 2019 until July 2021 across five institutions (three universities and two hospitals) in England. In total, 323 patients with multiple myeloma were identified.

Patients were divided into two groups: those diagnosed between Jan. 1, 2019, until Jan. 31, 2020, or pre-COVID, and those diagnosed from Feb. 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021, or post COVID.
 

Key results

Among all patients, 80 (24.8%) were diagnosed with smoldering multiple myeloma and 243 (75.2%) were diagnosed with multiple myeloma requiring treatment.

Significantly more patients in the post-COVID group were diagnosed with myeloma through the emergency route (45.5% post COVID vs. 32.7% pre-COVID; P = .03).

Clinical complications leading to emergency admission prior to a myeloma diagnosis also differed between the two cohorts: Acute kidney injury accounted for most emergency admissions in the pre-COVID cohort while skeletal-related events, including spinal cord compression, were the major causes for diagnosis through the emergency route in the post-COVID cohort.

Patients who were diagnosed with symptomatic myeloma pre-COVID were more likely to be treated with a triplet rather than doublet combination compared with those diagnosed in the post-COVID period (triplet pre-COVID 79.1%, post COVID 63.75%; P = .014).

Overall survival at 1 year was not significantly different between the pre-COVID and post-COVID groups: 88.2% pre-COVID, compared with 87.8% post COVID. 

Overall, the authors concluded that the COVID pandemic “resulted in a shift in the symptomatology, disease burden, and routes of diagnosis of patients presenting with myeloma” and “this may have significant consequences” over the long term.
 

Limitations

The study does not provide a clear time frame of delays in diagnosis.

Disclosures

The study authors did not report any conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com .

Each year, the AGA Research Foundation provides research funding to transform the lives of talented investigators.

What will the practice of gastroenterology look like in 20 years? It is our hope that physicians have an abundance of new tools and treatments to care for their patients suffering from digestive disorders.

How will we get there? New treatments and devices are the result of years of research.

To help make this dream a reality, AGA – through the AGA Research Foundation – has made a commitment to support investigators in GI and hepatology with its Research Awards Program. In the past year, the AGA Research Foundation provided $2.5 million in research funding to 61 highly qualified investigators. These diverse researchers range from young investigators to more seasoned leaders in GI, all embarking on novel research projects that will advance our understanding of digestive conditions and pave the way for future discoveries in the field.

The AGA Research Foundation sincerely thanks all of its donors – without their contributions, this work wouldn’t be possible.

You can help spark the scientific breakthroughs of today so clinicians will have the tools to improve care tomorrow. Donate your tax-deductible gift today at www.gastro.org/donateonline.

Each year, the AGA Research Foundation provides research funding to transform the lives of talented investigators.

What will the practice of gastroenterology look like in 20 years? It is our hope that physicians have an abundance of new tools and treatments to care for their patients suffering from digestive disorders.

How will we get there? New treatments and devices are the result of years of research.

To help make this dream a reality, AGA – through the AGA Research Foundation – has made a commitment to support investigators in GI and hepatology with its Research Awards Program. In the past year, the AGA Research Foundation provided $2.5 million in research funding to 61 highly qualified investigators. These diverse researchers range from young investigators to more seasoned leaders in GI, all embarking on novel research projects that will advance our understanding of digestive conditions and pave the way for future discoveries in the field.

The AGA Research Foundation sincerely thanks all of its donors – without their contributions, this work wouldn’t be possible.

You can help spark the scientific breakthroughs of today so clinicians will have the tools to improve care tomorrow. Donate your tax-deductible gift today at www.gastro.org/donateonline.

Each year, the AGA Research Foundation provides research funding to transform the lives of talented investigators.

What will the practice of gastroenterology look like in 20 years? It is our hope that physicians have an abundance of new tools and treatments to care for their patients suffering from digestive disorders.

How will we get there? New treatments and devices are the result of years of research.

To help make this dream a reality, AGA – through the AGA Research Foundation – has made a commitment to support investigators in GI and hepatology with its Research Awards Program. In the past year, the AGA Research Foundation provided $2.5 million in research funding to 61 highly qualified investigators. These diverse researchers range from young investigators to more seasoned leaders in GI, all embarking on novel research projects that will advance our understanding of digestive conditions and pave the way for future discoveries in the field.

The AGA Research Foundation sincerely thanks all of its donors – without their contributions, this work wouldn’t be possible.

You can help spark the scientific breakthroughs of today so clinicians will have the tools to improve care tomorrow. Donate your tax-deductible gift today at www.gastro.org/donateonline.

Short bursts of activity are approximately as effective for general health as longer sessions, especially for those who are mainly sedentary, according to several recently published studies.

If your fitness goals are greater, and you want to build muscle strength and endurance, compete in a 5K, or just look better in your swimsuit, you will need to do more. But for basic health, it appears that short bursts can help, the new research papers and experts suggest.

“Whether you accumulate activity in many short bouts versus one extended bout, the general health benefits tend to be similar,” Amanda Paluch, PhD, a physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said in an interview.

Current public health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest doing at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week for health benefits, but this activity can be accumulated in any way over the week, she noted. Previous versions of the CDC guidelines on exercise suggested that physical activity bouts should be at least 10 minutes each, but the latest version of the guidelines acknowledges that bursts of less than 10 minutes may be beneficial.

However, “the activity or fitness level at which someone starts and the specific health goals matter,” Dr. Paluch continued. “Short bouts may be particularly beneficial for those least active to get moving more to improve their general wellness.”

The current federal physical activity guidelines are still worth striving for, and patients can work their way to this goal, accumulating 150 or more minutes in a way that works best for them, she added.

“There is a lack of research directly comparing individuals who consistently accumulate their activity in many short bouts versus single bouts over an extended period of time,” Dr. Paluch noted. From a public health perspective, since both short and long bouts have health benefits, the best physical activity is what fits into your life and helps build a lifelong habit.

The benefits of exercise for cardiovascular health are well documented. A review from Circulation published in 2003 summarized the benefits of regular physical activity on measures of cardiovascular health including reduction in body weight, blood pressure, and bad cholesterol, while increasing insulin sensitivity, good cholesterol, and muscular strength and function. In that review, author Jonathan N. Myers, PhD, now of Stanford (Calif.) University, noted that “one need not be a marathon runner or an elite athlete to derive significant benefits from physical activity.” In fact, “the greatest gains in terms of mortality are achieved when an individual goes from being sedentary to becoming moderately active.”

A recent large, population-based study showed the value of short bursts of exercise for those previously sedentary. In this study, published in Nature Medicine, a team in Australia used wearable fitness trackers to measure the health benefits of what researchers have named “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity” or VILPA.

Some examples of VILPA include power walking on the way to work, climbing stairs, or even running around with your kids on the playground.

Specifically, individuals who engaged in the median VILPA frequency of three bursts of vigorous activity lasting 1-2 minutes showed a 38%-40% reduction in all-cause mortality risk and cancer mortality risk, and a 48%-49% reduction in cardiovascular mortality risk.

The researchers repeated their analysis for a group of 62,344 adults from the UK Biobank who reported regular vigorous physical activity (VPA). They found similar effects on mortality, based on 1,552 deaths reported.

These results suggest that VILPA may be a reasonable physical activity target, especially for people not able or willing to exercise more formally or intensely, the researchers noted.

“We have known for a long time that leisure-time exercise often reaches vigorous intensity and has many health benefits, but we understand less about the health potential of daily movement, especially activities done as part of daily living that reach vigorous intensity,” lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD, professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, said in an interview.

“As long as the heart rate goes up for a minute or 2 it will likely be vigorous activity,” Dr. Stamatakis said in an interview. “It is also important that clinicians effectively communicate how patients can know that they are reaching vigorous intensity,” he said.

Signs of vigorous intensity include increased heart rate and getting out of breath after about 20-40 seconds from the start of the VILPA burst. After about a minute of VILPA, the person doing it should be too out of breath to speak more than a few words comfortably, he said.
 

Data support value of any and all exercise

The Nature Medicine study supports other recent research showing the value of short, intense bursts of physical activity. A pair of recent studies also used fitness trackers to measure activity in adults and assess the benefits on outcomes including death and heart disease.

One of these studies, which was published in the European Heart Journal, also used fitness trackers to measure physical activity at moderate and vigorous levels. The researchers found that individuals who performed at least 20% of their physical activity at a moderate to high level, such as by doing brisk walking in lieu of strolling had a significantly lower risk of heart disease than those whose daily activity included less than 20% at a moderate or intense level.

In another study from the European Heart Journal, researchers found that short bursts of vigorous physical activity of 2 minutes or less adding up to 15-20 minutes per week was enough to reduce mortality by as much as 40%.

Plus, a meta-analysis published in the Lancet showed a decrease in all-cause mortality with an increase in the number of daily steps, although the impact of stepping rate on mortality was inconsistent.

“Many studies have investigated the health benefits of physical activity, but not the importance of these difficult-to-capture VILPA bouts that accrue during the course of normal activities of daily living,” Lee Stoner, PhD, an exercise physiologist and director of the Cardiometabolic Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in an interview.

Dr. Stoner, who was not involved in the Nature Medicine study, said he was not surprised by the overall finding that doing short bursts of activity impacted mortality and cardiovascular disease, but was slightly surprised by the strength of the evidence.

“The referent group in the Nature Medicine study were those accruing no VILPA”, likely meaning they were very inactive,” Dr. Stoner said and added that he thinks this demonstrates the value of VILPA.

Even without immediately meeting the specific numbers recommended by the CDC, “any physical activity is better than none, especially if vigorous, and VILPA can be built into normal daily routines,” Dr. Stoner added.
 

What’s missing in short bursts?

Short bursts of activity do have their limits when it comes to overall fitness, said Dr. Stoner.

“Endurance will not be improved as much through short bursts, because such activities are unlikely to be as effective at empowering the mitochondria – the batteries keeping our cells running, including skeletal muscle cells,” he said. “Additionally, the vigorous bouts are unlikely to be as effective at improving muscular strength and endurance. For this, it is recommended that we engage each muscle group in strengthening exercises two times per week.”

However, Dr. Stoner agreed that prescribing short bursts of intense activity as part of daily living may be a great way to get people started with exercise.

“The key is to remove barriers to physical activity pursuit, then focusing on long-term routine rather than short-term gain,” he said. “Individuals are better served if they focus on goals other than weight loss, for which physical activity or exercise may not be the solution. Rather, being physically active can improve vigor, make daily activities simpler, and improve cognitive abilities,” and any physical activity is one of the most effective solutions for regulating blood glucose levels and improving cardiovascular risk factors.
 

Make it routine – and fun

To benefit from physical activity, cultivating and sustaining a long-term routine is key, said Dr. Stoner, whose research has focused on sedentary behavior and cardiovascular disease. Whatever the activity is, shorter bursts, or longer bouts or both, it is essential that individuals figure out activities that they enjoy if they want to create sustained behavior, and thus health change, Gabriel Zieff, MA, a doctoral candidate in Dr. Stoner’s Cardiometabolic Lab, who conducts studies on exercise, noted in an interview.

“We exercise enthusiasts and researchers are often hyperfocused on whether this duration or that duration is better, whether this intensity or that intensity is better,” but at the end of the day, it is the enjoyment factor that often predicts sustained behavior change, and should be part of discussions with patients to help reduce sedentary behavior and promote activity, Mr. Zieff said.
 

Short bouts can encourage hesitant exercisers

“To best support health, clinicians should consider taking a few seconds to ask patients about their physical activity levels,” said Dr. Paluch, who was the lead author on the Lancet meta-analysis of daily steps. In that study, Dr. Paluch and colleagues found that taking more steps each day was associated with a progressively lower risk of all-cause mortality. However, that study did not measure step rate.

Clinicians can emphasize that health benefits do not require an hour-long exercise routine and special equipment, and moving more, even in shorts bursts of activity can have meaningful associations with health, particularly for those who are less active, she said.

The recent studies on short bursts of activity agree that “some physical activity is better than none and adults should move more throughout the day in whatever way makes sense to them and fits best into their lives,” said Dr. Paluch. “For example, opting for the stairs instead of the elevator, a brisk walk to the bus stop, a short game of hide and seek with the children or grandchildren – anything that gets your body moving more, even if briefly. Making simple lifestyle changes is often easier in small bites. In time, this can grow into long-term habits, ultimately leading to an overall active lifestyle that supports living healthier for longer.”

The Nature Medicine study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. Several coauthors were supported by the Wellcome Trust, the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Novo Nordisk, the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, the Alan Turing Institute, the British Heart Foundation, and Health Data Research UK, an initiative funded by UK Research and Innovation. Dr. Paluch and Dr. Stoner had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Short bursts of activity are approximately as effective for general health as longer sessions, especially for those who are mainly sedentary, according to several recently published studies.

If your fitness goals are greater, and you want to build muscle strength and endurance, compete in a 5K, or just look better in your swimsuit, you will need to do more. But for basic health, it appears that short bursts can help, the new research papers and experts suggest.

“Whether you accumulate activity in many short bouts versus one extended bout, the general health benefits tend to be similar,” Amanda Paluch, PhD, a physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said in an interview.

Current public health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest doing at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week for health benefits, but this activity can be accumulated in any way over the week, she noted. Previous versions of the CDC guidelines on exercise suggested that physical activity bouts should be at least 10 minutes each, but the latest version of the guidelines acknowledges that bursts of less than 10 minutes may be beneficial.

However, “the activity or fitness level at which someone starts and the specific health goals matter,” Dr. Paluch continued. “Short bouts may be particularly beneficial for those least active to get moving more to improve their general wellness.”

The current federal physical activity guidelines are still worth striving for, and patients can work their way to this goal, accumulating 150 or more minutes in a way that works best for them, she added.

“There is a lack of research directly comparing individuals who consistently accumulate their activity in many short bouts versus single bouts over an extended period of time,” Dr. Paluch noted. From a public health perspective, since both short and long bouts have health benefits, the best physical activity is what fits into your life and helps build a lifelong habit.

The benefits of exercise for cardiovascular health are well documented. A review from Circulation published in 2003 summarized the benefits of regular physical activity on measures of cardiovascular health including reduction in body weight, blood pressure, and bad cholesterol, while increasing insulin sensitivity, good cholesterol, and muscular strength and function. In that review, author Jonathan N. Myers, PhD, now of Stanford (Calif.) University, noted that “one need not be a marathon runner or an elite athlete to derive significant benefits from physical activity.” In fact, “the greatest gains in terms of mortality are achieved when an individual goes from being sedentary to becoming moderately active.”

A recent large, population-based study showed the value of short bursts of exercise for those previously sedentary. In this study, published in Nature Medicine, a team in Australia used wearable fitness trackers to measure the health benefits of what researchers have named “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity” or VILPA.

Some examples of VILPA include power walking on the way to work, climbing stairs, or even running around with your kids on the playground.

Specifically, individuals who engaged in the median VILPA frequency of three bursts of vigorous activity lasting 1-2 minutes showed a 38%-40% reduction in all-cause mortality risk and cancer mortality risk, and a 48%-49% reduction in cardiovascular mortality risk.

The researchers repeated their analysis for a group of 62,344 adults from the UK Biobank who reported regular vigorous physical activity (VPA). They found similar effects on mortality, based on 1,552 deaths reported.

These results suggest that VILPA may be a reasonable physical activity target, especially for people not able or willing to exercise more formally or intensely, the researchers noted.

“We have known for a long time that leisure-time exercise often reaches vigorous intensity and has many health benefits, but we understand less about the health potential of daily movement, especially activities done as part of daily living that reach vigorous intensity,” lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD, professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, said in an interview.

“As long as the heart rate goes up for a minute or 2 it will likely be vigorous activity,” Dr. Stamatakis said in an interview. “It is also important that clinicians effectively communicate how patients can know that they are reaching vigorous intensity,” he said.

Signs of vigorous intensity include increased heart rate and getting out of breath after about 20-40 seconds from the start of the VILPA burst. After about a minute of VILPA, the person doing it should be too out of breath to speak more than a few words comfortably, he said.
 

Data support value of any and all exercise

The Nature Medicine study supports other recent research showing the value of short, intense bursts of physical activity. A pair of recent studies also used fitness trackers to measure activity in adults and assess the benefits on outcomes including death and heart disease.

One of these studies, which was published in the European Heart Journal, also used fitness trackers to measure physical activity at moderate and vigorous levels. The researchers found that individuals who performed at least 20% of their physical activity at a moderate to high level, such as by doing brisk walking in lieu of strolling had a significantly lower risk of heart disease than those whose daily activity included less than 20% at a moderate or intense level.

In another study from the European Heart Journal, researchers found that short bursts of vigorous physical activity of 2 minutes or less adding up to 15-20 minutes per week was enough to reduce mortality by as much as 40%.

Plus, a meta-analysis published in the Lancet showed a decrease in all-cause mortality with an increase in the number of daily steps, although the impact of stepping rate on mortality was inconsistent.

“Many studies have investigated the health benefits of physical activity, but not the importance of these difficult-to-capture VILPA bouts that accrue during the course of normal activities of daily living,” Lee Stoner, PhD, an exercise physiologist and director of the Cardiometabolic Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in an interview.

Dr. Stoner, who was not involved in the Nature Medicine study, said he was not surprised by the overall finding that doing short bursts of activity impacted mortality and cardiovascular disease, but was slightly surprised by the strength of the evidence.

“The referent group in the Nature Medicine study were those accruing no VILPA”, likely meaning they were very inactive,” Dr. Stoner said and added that he thinks this demonstrates the value of VILPA.

Even without immediately meeting the specific numbers recommended by the CDC, “any physical activity is better than none, especially if vigorous, and VILPA can be built into normal daily routines,” Dr. Stoner added.
 

What’s missing in short bursts?

Short bursts of activity do have their limits when it comes to overall fitness, said Dr. Stoner.

“Endurance will not be improved as much through short bursts, because such activities are unlikely to be as effective at empowering the mitochondria – the batteries keeping our cells running, including skeletal muscle cells,” he said. “Additionally, the vigorous bouts are unlikely to be as effective at improving muscular strength and endurance. For this, it is recommended that we engage each muscle group in strengthening exercises two times per week.”

However, Dr. Stoner agreed that prescribing short bursts of intense activity as part of daily living may be a great way to get people started with exercise.

“The key is to remove barriers to physical activity pursuit, then focusing on long-term routine rather than short-term gain,” he said. “Individuals are better served if they focus on goals other than weight loss, for which physical activity or exercise may not be the solution. Rather, being physically active can improve vigor, make daily activities simpler, and improve cognitive abilities,” and any physical activity is one of the most effective solutions for regulating blood glucose levels and improving cardiovascular risk factors.
 

Make it routine – and fun

To benefit from physical activity, cultivating and sustaining a long-term routine is key, said Dr. Stoner, whose research has focused on sedentary behavior and cardiovascular disease. Whatever the activity is, shorter bursts, or longer bouts or both, it is essential that individuals figure out activities that they enjoy if they want to create sustained behavior, and thus health change, Gabriel Zieff, MA, a doctoral candidate in Dr. Stoner’s Cardiometabolic Lab, who conducts studies on exercise, noted in an interview.

“We exercise enthusiasts and researchers are often hyperfocused on whether this duration or that duration is better, whether this intensity or that intensity is better,” but at the end of the day, it is the enjoyment factor that often predicts sustained behavior change, and should be part of discussions with patients to help reduce sedentary behavior and promote activity, Mr. Zieff said.
 

Short bouts can encourage hesitant exercisers

“To best support health, clinicians should consider taking a few seconds to ask patients about their physical activity levels,” said Dr. Paluch, who was the lead author on the Lancet meta-analysis of daily steps. In that study, Dr. Paluch and colleagues found that taking more steps each day was associated with a progressively lower risk of all-cause mortality. However, that study did not measure step rate.

Clinicians can emphasize that health benefits do not require an hour-long exercise routine and special equipment, and moving more, even in shorts bursts of activity can have meaningful associations with health, particularly for those who are less active, she said.

The recent studies on short bursts of activity agree that “some physical activity is better than none and adults should move more throughout the day in whatever way makes sense to them and fits best into their lives,” said Dr. Paluch. “For example, opting for the stairs instead of the elevator, a brisk walk to the bus stop, a short game of hide and seek with the children or grandchildren – anything that gets your body moving more, even if briefly. Making simple lifestyle changes is often easier in small bites. In time, this can grow into long-term habits, ultimately leading to an overall active lifestyle that supports living healthier for longer.”

The Nature Medicine study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. Several coauthors were supported by the Wellcome Trust, the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Novo Nordisk, the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, the Alan Turing Institute, the British Heart Foundation, and Health Data Research UK, an initiative funded by UK Research and Innovation. Dr. Paluch and Dr. Stoner had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Short bursts of activity are approximately as effective for general health as longer sessions, especially for those who are mainly sedentary, according to several recently published studies.

If your fitness goals are greater, and you want to build muscle strength and endurance, compete in a 5K, or just look better in your swimsuit, you will need to do more. But for basic health, it appears that short bursts can help, the new research papers and experts suggest.

“Whether you accumulate activity in many short bouts versus one extended bout, the general health benefits tend to be similar,” Amanda Paluch, PhD, a physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said in an interview.

Current public health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest doing at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week for health benefits, but this activity can be accumulated in any way over the week, she noted. Previous versions of the CDC guidelines on exercise suggested that physical activity bouts should be at least 10 minutes each, but the latest version of the guidelines acknowledges that bursts of less than 10 minutes may be beneficial.

However, “the activity or fitness level at which someone starts and the specific health goals matter,” Dr. Paluch continued. “Short bouts may be particularly beneficial for those least active to get moving more to improve their general wellness.”

The current federal physical activity guidelines are still worth striving for, and patients can work their way to this goal, accumulating 150 or more minutes in a way that works best for them, she added.

“There is a lack of research directly comparing individuals who consistently accumulate their activity in many short bouts versus single bouts over an extended period of time,” Dr. Paluch noted. From a public health perspective, since both short and long bouts have health benefits, the best physical activity is what fits into your life and helps build a lifelong habit.

The benefits of exercise for cardiovascular health are well documented. A review from Circulation published in 2003 summarized the benefits of regular physical activity on measures of cardiovascular health including reduction in body weight, blood pressure, and bad cholesterol, while increasing insulin sensitivity, good cholesterol, and muscular strength and function. In that review, author Jonathan N. Myers, PhD, now of Stanford (Calif.) University, noted that “one need not be a marathon runner or an elite athlete to derive significant benefits from physical activity.” In fact, “the greatest gains in terms of mortality are achieved when an individual goes from being sedentary to becoming moderately active.”

A recent large, population-based study showed the value of short bursts of exercise for those previously sedentary. In this study, published in Nature Medicine, a team in Australia used wearable fitness trackers to measure the health benefits of what researchers have named “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity” or VILPA.

Some examples of VILPA include power walking on the way to work, climbing stairs, or even running around with your kids on the playground.

Specifically, individuals who engaged in the median VILPA frequency of three bursts of vigorous activity lasting 1-2 minutes showed a 38%-40% reduction in all-cause mortality risk and cancer mortality risk, and a 48%-49% reduction in cardiovascular mortality risk.

The researchers repeated their analysis for a group of 62,344 adults from the UK Biobank who reported regular vigorous physical activity (VPA). They found similar effects on mortality, based on 1,552 deaths reported.

These results suggest that VILPA may be a reasonable physical activity target, especially for people not able or willing to exercise more formally or intensely, the researchers noted.

“We have known for a long time that leisure-time exercise often reaches vigorous intensity and has many health benefits, but we understand less about the health potential of daily movement, especially activities done as part of daily living that reach vigorous intensity,” lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD, professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, said in an interview.

“As long as the heart rate goes up for a minute or 2 it will likely be vigorous activity,” Dr. Stamatakis said in an interview. “It is also important that clinicians effectively communicate how patients can know that they are reaching vigorous intensity,” he said.

Signs of vigorous intensity include increased heart rate and getting out of breath after about 20-40 seconds from the start of the VILPA burst. After about a minute of VILPA, the person doing it should be too out of breath to speak more than a few words comfortably, he said.
 

Data support value of any and all exercise

The Nature Medicine study supports other recent research showing the value of short, intense bursts of physical activity. A pair of recent studies also used fitness trackers to measure activity in adults and assess the benefits on outcomes including death and heart disease.

One of these studies, which was published in the European Heart Journal, also used fitness trackers to measure physical activity at moderate and vigorous levels. The researchers found that individuals who performed at least 20% of their physical activity at a moderate to high level, such as by doing brisk walking in lieu of strolling had a significantly lower risk of heart disease than those whose daily activity included less than 20% at a moderate or intense level.

In another study from the European Heart Journal, researchers found that short bursts of vigorous physical activity of 2 minutes or less adding up to 15-20 minutes per week was enough to reduce mortality by as much as 40%.

Plus, a meta-analysis published in the Lancet showed a decrease in all-cause mortality with an increase in the number of daily steps, although the impact of stepping rate on mortality was inconsistent.

“Many studies have investigated the health benefits of physical activity, but not the importance of these difficult-to-capture VILPA bouts that accrue during the course of normal activities of daily living,” Lee Stoner, PhD, an exercise physiologist and director of the Cardiometabolic Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in an interview.

Dr. Stoner, who was not involved in the Nature Medicine study, said he was not surprised by the overall finding that doing short bursts of activity impacted mortality and cardiovascular disease, but was slightly surprised by the strength of the evidence.

“The referent group in the Nature Medicine study were those accruing no VILPA”, likely meaning they were very inactive,” Dr. Stoner said and added that he thinks this demonstrates the value of VILPA.

Even without immediately meeting the specific numbers recommended by the CDC, “any physical activity is better than none, especially if vigorous, and VILPA can be built into normal daily routines,” Dr. Stoner added.
 

What’s missing in short bursts?

Short bursts of activity do have their limits when it comes to overall fitness, said Dr. Stoner.

“Endurance will not be improved as much through short bursts, because such activities are unlikely to be as effective at empowering the mitochondria – the batteries keeping our cells running, including skeletal muscle cells,” he said. “Additionally, the vigorous bouts are unlikely to be as effective at improving muscular strength and endurance. For this, it is recommended that we engage each muscle group in strengthening exercises two times per week.”

However, Dr. Stoner agreed that prescribing short bursts of intense activity as part of daily living may be a great way to get people started with exercise.

“The key is to remove barriers to physical activity pursuit, then focusing on long-term routine rather than short-term gain,” he said. “Individuals are better served if they focus on goals other than weight loss, for which physical activity or exercise may not be the solution. Rather, being physically active can improve vigor, make daily activities simpler, and improve cognitive abilities,” and any physical activity is one of the most effective solutions for regulating blood glucose levels and improving cardiovascular risk factors.
 

Make it routine – and fun

To benefit from physical activity, cultivating and sustaining a long-term routine is key, said Dr. Stoner, whose research has focused on sedentary behavior and cardiovascular disease. Whatever the activity is, shorter bursts, or longer bouts or both, it is essential that individuals figure out activities that they enjoy if they want to create sustained behavior, and thus health change, Gabriel Zieff, MA, a doctoral candidate in Dr. Stoner’s Cardiometabolic Lab, who conducts studies on exercise, noted in an interview.

“We exercise enthusiasts and researchers are often hyperfocused on whether this duration or that duration is better, whether this intensity or that intensity is better,” but at the end of the day, it is the enjoyment factor that often predicts sustained behavior change, and should be part of discussions with patients to help reduce sedentary behavior and promote activity, Mr. Zieff said.
 

Short bouts can encourage hesitant exercisers

“To best support health, clinicians should consider taking a few seconds to ask patients about their physical activity levels,” said Dr. Paluch, who was the lead author on the Lancet meta-analysis of daily steps. In that study, Dr. Paluch and colleagues found that taking more steps each day was associated with a progressively lower risk of all-cause mortality. However, that study did not measure step rate.

Clinicians can emphasize that health benefits do not require an hour-long exercise routine and special equipment, and moving more, even in shorts bursts of activity can have meaningful associations with health, particularly for those who are less active, she said.

The recent studies on short bursts of activity agree that “some physical activity is better than none and adults should move more throughout the day in whatever way makes sense to them and fits best into their lives,” said Dr. Paluch. “For example, opting for the stairs instead of the elevator, a brisk walk to the bus stop, a short game of hide and seek with the children or grandchildren – anything that gets your body moving more, even if briefly. Making simple lifestyle changes is often easier in small bites. In time, this can grow into long-term habits, ultimately leading to an overall active lifestyle that supports living healthier for longer.”

The Nature Medicine study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. Several coauthors were supported by the Wellcome Trust, the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Novo Nordisk, the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, the Alan Turing Institute, the British Heart Foundation, and Health Data Research UK, an initiative funded by UK Research and Innovation. Dr. Paluch and Dr. Stoner had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Fitbit users who took 10,700 steps a day had a 44% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who only took 6,000 steps a day, regardless of age, sex, or body mass index, in an almost 4-year study.

The protective effect of daily step count on type 2 diabetes risk remained after adjusting for smoking and sedentary time.

Taking more steps per day was also associated with less risk of developing type 2 diabetes in different subgroups of physical activity intensity.

“Our data shows the importance of moving your body every day to lower your risk of [type 2] diabetes,” said the lead author of the research, Andrew S. Perry, MD. The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
 

Despite low baseline risk, benefit from increased physical activity

The study was conducted in more than 5,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research program who had a median age of 51 and were generally overweight (median BMI 27.8 kg/m²). Three quarters were women and 89% were White.

It used an innovative approach in a real-world population, said Dr. Perry, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The individuals in this cohort had relatively few risk factors, so it was not surprising that the incidence of type 2 diabetes overall was low (2%), the researchers note. “Yet, despite being low risk, we still detected a signal of benefit from increased” physical activity, Dr. Perry and colleagues write.

The individuals had a median of 16 very active minutes/day, which corresponds to 112 very active minutes/week (ie, less than the guideline-recommended 150 minutes of physical activity/week).

“These results indicate that amounts of physical activity are correlated with lower risk of [type 2] diabetes, regardless of the intensity level, and even at amounts less than current guidelines recommend,” the researchers summarize.
 

Physical activity tracked over close to 4 years

Prior studies of the relationship between physical activity and type 2 diabetes risk relied primarily on questionnaires that asked people about physical activity at one point in time.

The researchers aimed to examine this association over time, in a contemporary cohort of Fitbit users who participated in the All of Us program.

From 12,781 participants with Fitbit data between 2010 and 2021, they identified 5,677 individuals who were at least 18 years old and had linked electronic health record data, no diabetes at baseline, at least 15 days of Fitbit data in the initial monitoring period, and at least 180 days of follow-up.

The Fitbit counts steps, and it also uses an algorithm to quantify physical activity intensity as lightly active (1.5-3 metabolic equivalent task (METs), fairly active (3-6 METs), and very active (> 6 METs).

During a median 3.8-year follow-up, participants made a median of 7,924 steps/day and were “fairly active” for a median of 16 minutes/day.

They found 97 new cases of type 2 diabetes over a follow-up of 4 years in the dataset.

The predicted cumulative incidence of type 2 diabetes at 5 years was 0.8% for individuals who walked 13,245 steps/day (90th percentile) vs. 2.3% for those who walked 4,301 steps/day (10th percentile).

“We hope to study more diverse populations in future studies to confirm the generalizability of these findings,” Dr. Perry said.

This study received funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Perry reports no relevant financial relationships. Disclosures for the other authors are listed with the original article.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Fitbit users who took 10,700 steps a day had a 44% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who only took 6,000 steps a day, regardless of age, sex, or body mass index, in an almost 4-year study.

The protective effect of daily step count on type 2 diabetes risk remained after adjusting for smoking and sedentary time.

Taking more steps per day was also associated with less risk of developing type 2 diabetes in different subgroups of physical activity intensity.

“Our data shows the importance of moving your body every day to lower your risk of [type 2] diabetes,” said the lead author of the research, Andrew S. Perry, MD. The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
 

Despite low baseline risk, benefit from increased physical activity

The study was conducted in more than 5,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research program who had a median age of 51 and were generally overweight (median BMI 27.8 kg/m²). Three quarters were women and 89% were White.

It used an innovative approach in a real-world population, said Dr. Perry, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The individuals in this cohort had relatively few risk factors, so it was not surprising that the incidence of type 2 diabetes overall was low (2%), the researchers note. “Yet, despite being low risk, we still detected a signal of benefit from increased” physical activity, Dr. Perry and colleagues write.

The individuals had a median of 16 very active minutes/day, which corresponds to 112 very active minutes/week (ie, less than the guideline-recommended 150 minutes of physical activity/week).

“These results indicate that amounts of physical activity are correlated with lower risk of [type 2] diabetes, regardless of the intensity level, and even at amounts less than current guidelines recommend,” the researchers summarize.
 

Physical activity tracked over close to 4 years

Prior studies of the relationship between physical activity and type 2 diabetes risk relied primarily on questionnaires that asked people about physical activity at one point in time.

The researchers aimed to examine this association over time, in a contemporary cohort of Fitbit users who participated in the All of Us program.

From 12,781 participants with Fitbit data between 2010 and 2021, they identified 5,677 individuals who were at least 18 years old and had linked electronic health record data, no diabetes at baseline, at least 15 days of Fitbit data in the initial monitoring period, and at least 180 days of follow-up.

The Fitbit counts steps, and it also uses an algorithm to quantify physical activity intensity as lightly active (1.5-3 metabolic equivalent task (METs), fairly active (3-6 METs), and very active (> 6 METs).

During a median 3.8-year follow-up, participants made a median of 7,924 steps/day and were “fairly active” for a median of 16 minutes/day.

They found 97 new cases of type 2 diabetes over a follow-up of 4 years in the dataset.

The predicted cumulative incidence of type 2 diabetes at 5 years was 0.8% for individuals who walked 13,245 steps/day (90th percentile) vs. 2.3% for those who walked 4,301 steps/day (10th percentile).

“We hope to study more diverse populations in future studies to confirm the generalizability of these findings,” Dr. Perry said.

This study received funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Perry reports no relevant financial relationships. Disclosures for the other authors are listed with the original article.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Fitbit users who took 10,700 steps a day had a 44% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who only took 6,000 steps a day, regardless of age, sex, or body mass index, in an almost 4-year study.

The protective effect of daily step count on type 2 diabetes risk remained after adjusting for smoking and sedentary time.

Taking more steps per day was also associated with less risk of developing type 2 diabetes in different subgroups of physical activity intensity.

“Our data shows the importance of moving your body every day to lower your risk of [type 2] diabetes,” said the lead author of the research, Andrew S. Perry, MD. The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
 

Despite low baseline risk, benefit from increased physical activity

The study was conducted in more than 5,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research program who had a median age of 51 and were generally overweight (median BMI 27.8 kg/m²). Three quarters were women and 89% were White.

It used an innovative approach in a real-world population, said Dr. Perry, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The individuals in this cohort had relatively few risk factors, so it was not surprising that the incidence of type 2 diabetes overall was low (2%), the researchers note. “Yet, despite being low risk, we still detected a signal of benefit from increased” physical activity, Dr. Perry and colleagues write.

The individuals had a median of 16 very active minutes/day, which corresponds to 112 very active minutes/week (ie, less than the guideline-recommended 150 minutes of physical activity/week).

“These results indicate that amounts of physical activity are correlated with lower risk of [type 2] diabetes, regardless of the intensity level, and even at amounts less than current guidelines recommend,” the researchers summarize.
 

Physical activity tracked over close to 4 years

Prior studies of the relationship between physical activity and type 2 diabetes risk relied primarily on questionnaires that asked people about physical activity at one point in time.

The researchers aimed to examine this association over time, in a contemporary cohort of Fitbit users who participated in the All of Us program.

From 12,781 participants with Fitbit data between 2010 and 2021, they identified 5,677 individuals who were at least 18 years old and had linked electronic health record data, no diabetes at baseline, at least 15 days of Fitbit data in the initial monitoring period, and at least 180 days of follow-up.

The Fitbit counts steps, and it also uses an algorithm to quantify physical activity intensity as lightly active (1.5-3 metabolic equivalent task (METs), fairly active (3-6 METs), and very active (> 6 METs).

During a median 3.8-year follow-up, participants made a median of 7,924 steps/day and were “fairly active” for a median of 16 minutes/day.

They found 97 new cases of type 2 diabetes over a follow-up of 4 years in the dataset.

The predicted cumulative incidence of type 2 diabetes at 5 years was 0.8% for individuals who walked 13,245 steps/day (90th percentile) vs. 2.3% for those who walked 4,301 steps/day (10th percentile).

“We hope to study more diverse populations in future studies to confirm the generalizability of these findings,” Dr. Perry said.

This study received funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Perry reports no relevant financial relationships. Disclosures for the other authors are listed with the original article.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.