Hi, I'm Jennifer Abbasi, senior staff writer for JAMA Medical News.
And I'm Feyza Sancar, editor of JAMA Medical News.
We reviewed all the original investigations
and special communications published across the JAMA Network.
Here is a countdown of the most read articles in each of the journals.
To start off we have an original investigation from JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.
The researchers describe an updated procedure for harvesting a flap from
the gracilis muscle in the leg and transplanting it into the face of patients
with facial paralysis to create a more natural smile.
The muscle flap, nourished by a single blood vessel,
is separated into 2 muscle pieces to allow for different directions of pull,
mimicking the different pull directions of the natural muscles in the face.
Next up, in 12th place, was an original investigation in JAMA Dermatology,
suggesting that physician Assistants and dermatologists differ
in their ability to diagnose skin cancer.
Compared with dermatologists,
PAs required more biopsies than dermatologists did to diagnose cancers,
and they diagnosed fewer melanomas in situ, suggesting a lower diagnostic accuracy.
A randomized clinical trial published
in JAMA Ophthalmology comparing treatments for polypoidal choroidal
vasculopathy, a type of age-related macular degeneration common among Asian patients,
took 11th place.
The researchers found that combining intravitreal
ranibizumab with verteporfin photodynamic therapy resulted
in greater visual acuity improvement compared with ranibizumab therapy alone.
Ranibizumab inhibits blood vessel growth while verteporfin blocks leaking blood vessels
when activated by light.
The 10th most-read article was an original investigation in JAMA surgery.
This study found that patients with gunshot or stab wounds who were transported
to a hospital by private vehicles were about 60% less likely to die than those transported
by emergency medical services in urban US trauma systems.
Next up was an original investigation in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck
Surgery that reported improvement in symptoms of laryngopharyngeal reflux with both proton
pump inhibitors, and a plant-based Mediterranean style diet and alkaline water.
There was no difference in improvement between the two,
suggesting that the dietary approach could be an adequate treatment for reflux.
At #8 was a systematic review
and meta-analysis from JAMA Neurology which found that,
compared with aspirin, a 15-mg to 20-mg dose of rivaroxaban once daily was associated
with substantially increased risks of intracranial hemorrhage, but lower daily doses
of rivaroxaban and apixaban were not.
Both rivaroxaban and apixaban are non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants.
A randomized clinical trial in JAMA Pediatrics found that introducing infants
to solid foods early resulted in small but significant improvements
in sleep compared with infants who continued to be exclusively breastfed.
This article, which took 7th place,
lent some credence to the popular advice that some physicians consider to be a myth.
And in 6th place was an original investigation in JAMA Network Open.
This study reported a positive correlation between the county-level proportions of Medicare
Part D enrollees receiving a 90-day or greater supply of opioids, and the proportion
of the county voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election.
Individual and county-level socioeconomic measures accounted for much of the association.
The 5th most-read article was a special communication in JAMA Internal Medicine about
the carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity.
According to the model, overeating is a consequence
of weight gain, not the primary cause.
What's the mechanism? A diet high in refined carbohydrates leads to spikes in insulin levels,
increasing hunger and slowing metabolism-- and predisposing us to weight gain.
Continuing on to the 4th most-read article:
an original investigation in JAMA Oncology which found
that among patients with nonmetastatic breast, prostate, lung,
or colorectal cancer who received at least one conventional cancer treatment,
patients who used complementary medicine were more likely
to refuse at least one other component of conventional cancer treatment,
and had a two-fold greater risk of death than patients who did not use complementary medicine.
And a meta-analysis of ten trials in JAMA Cardiology took third place.
The researchers found that omega-3 fatty acid supplements had no significant association
with reductions in fatal or nonfatal coronary heart disease
or any major vascular events in high-risk people.
In second place was a special communication in JAMA characterizing the sources
of health care spending in the US and ten other high-income countries in 2016.
The US spent more on health care than the other countries, with the same
or worse outcomes; prices of labor and goods, including pharmaceuticals and devices,
and administrative costs appeared to be the main drivers of increased spending.
We're almost to #1, but, first, a bonus.
The most viewed News article of 2018 and the second most viewed article
across the network was a story discussing the rationale for use of a very low-carb,
high-fat ketogenic diet for weight loss and type 2 diabetes treatment.
And now the most-read article!
An original investigation in JAMA Psychiatry, which reported that the percentage
of US adults making a recent suicide attempt increased from 0.62% in 2004
through 2005 to 0.79% in 2012 through 2013.
This increase disproportionately affected younger adults
with less formal education and those with antisocial personality disorder,
anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and a history of violence.
And that's it.
Links to each of the articles can be found in the description.
And let's see what next year brings! Thanks for watching.