Welcome to Benchmarks, your weekly recap of news and notes from the Mass General research community. With a research community of more than 9,500 people, there is more news than we can cover every week. Here are a few highlights:

In this issue:

• In this issue:
• Research in the News
• Researchers Develop System to Improve Treatment of Patients with Circulatory Shock
• The Thymus May Play an Unexpected But Critical Role in Adult Health
• Mass General Researcher Shares Tips to Improve Your Sleep
• Research Tweets of the Week
• This Week in Mass General History
• When it Comes to Baldness, “Sick Men Must Be Cured, Thinkers Must Stop Thinking, Sinners Must Reform”

Research in the News

Researchers Develop System to Improve Treatment of Patients with Circulatory Shock

A team of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a method for monitoring critically ill patients in circulatory shock that helps reduce the risk of death or other adverse health effects.

Circulatory shock is a condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood and oxygen to the body, often as a result of blood loss, sepsis or heart failure. 

The team’s new method, which is derived from standard blood pressure assessments, was shown to accurately predict risk of death, length of hospital stay and blood lactate levels (an indication of blood flow and oxygenation).

We believe this method can be used to optimize treatment decisions for patients in the intensive care unit,” says senior author Aaron Aguirre, MD, PhD, an attending cardiologist and critical care specialist at MGH and an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Aguirre’s team will conduct additional studies to understand how tissue perfusion pressure varies with different therapies. They also plan to design clinical trials to test whether their new method can help guide clinical care and improve health outcomes in critically ill patients. Read more.

The Thymus May Play an Unexpected But Critical Role in Adult Health

The thymus gland—which produces immune T cells before birth and during childhood— is often regarded as nonfunctional in adults, and it’s sometimes removed during cardiac surgery for easier access to the heart and major blood vessels.

New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published in the New England Journal of Medicine has uncovered evidence that the thymus is in fact critical for adult health generally and for preventing cancer and perhaps autoimmune disease.

To determine whether the thymus provides health benefits to adults, the team evaluated the risk of death, cancer, and autoimmune disease among 1,146 adults who had their thymus removed during surgery and among 1,146 demographically matched patients who underwent similar cardiothoracic surgery without thymectomy.

Five years after surgery, 8.1% of patients who had a thymectomy died compared with 2.8% of those who did not have their thymus removed, equating to a 2.9-times higher risk of death.

Also during that time, 7.4% of patients in the thymectomy group developed cancer compared with 3.7% of patients in the control group, for a 2.0-times higher risk.

“By studying people who had their thymus removed, we discovered that the thymus is absolutely required for health. If it isn’t there, people’s risk of dying and risk of cancer is at least double,” says senior author David T. Scadden, MD, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at MGH and co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. “This indicates that the consequences of thymus removal should be carefully considered when contemplating thymectomy.” Read more.

Mass General Researcher Shares Tips to Improve Your Sleep

Elizabeth Klerman, MD, PhD, an investigator in the department of Neurology at Mass General, was featured in a Boston.com article about the importance of a good night’s sleep.

Klerman says there’s an easy — and somewhat unexpected — way to tell if you’re getting enough sleep, and it’s sitting right on your nightstand: your alarm clock (or lack thereof).

“If you need an alarm clock, you’re not getting enough sleep. If you’re getting enough sleep, you don’t need an alarm clock to wake up. You would wake up naturally,” Klerman said.

Getting enough sleep, like eating a balanced diet and doing regular exercise, is important for our physical health in more ways than one, Klerman said. Read more.

“Getting sufficient sleep is good for your metabolism, for your cardiovascular system, for your mental health, for all these things,” she said.  Read more.

Research Tweets of the Week

This Week in Mass General History

When it Comes to Baldness, “Sick Men Must Be Cured, Thinkers Must Stop Thinking, Sinners Must Reform”

August 20, 1914—An article in the Mexico Missouri Message newspaper from August 20, 1914, puts the spotlight on a treatment for baldness that originated at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Looking back at this article more than 100 years later, it appears that the treatment may have overpromised and undelivered when it comes to restoring lost hair.

The paper reports that the system, which was developed by Jacob Bruce, MD, consists of “rubbing the scalp with a Turkish towel” as the principal part of the treatment. “This is done at regular intervals and systematically followed up.”

(The internet defines a Turkish towel as a “large, flat-woven towel that is traditionally used in Turkish baths.”)

The article goes on to claim that Mayor Walter Wardwell of Cambridge was one of the first to try the new system and had success regrowing hair to cover up a bald spot on the back of his head.

“Special treatment is necessary in each case, according to the particular ill affecting the subject,” according to the article.

“Doctor Bruce declared that baldness is a symptom of a disease, and the fundamental trouble must be cured before the Turkish towel rubbing shows any effect. Sick men must be cured; thinkers must stop thinking, sinners must reform.” Read more.

About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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