Objective To assess whether medication use, specifically statin, metformin, and aspirin, affects the growth of vestibular schwannomas (VSs). Study Design Retrospective case series. Setting Single tertiary care academic hospital. Subjects and Methods Patients were enrolled if they were diagnosed with sporadic VS and had at least 2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies at a minimum of 6 months apart prior to any intervention. Electronic medical records were reviewed for demographic and medication data. Tumor volumes on MRI studies were assessed via BrainLab iPlan. The primary endpoint was VS tumor growth, defined as a 20% increase in tumor volume, between consecutive MRI studies or between the first and last available MRI study. Predictors of volumetric growth, specifically statin, aspirin, or metformin use, were analyzed with t tests, chi-square test, univariate logistic regression, and multivariate logistic regression. Results A total of 387 patients met inclusion criteria, 53.5% of whom were women. For all patients, the mean age was 60.6 years (range, 18.2-89.2 years); the mean axial tumor diameter, 11.9 mm (range, 1.7-32.0 mm); and the mean tumor volume, 0.85 cm3 (range, 0.01-13.1 cm3). In review of the electronic medical record, 46 patients (11.9%) were taking metformin; 145 (37.5%), a statin; and 117 (30.2%), aspirin. Among patients taking metformin, 39.1% (18/46) exhibited volumetric growth, as opposed to 58.2% (198/340) of nonusers ( P = .014). Metformin (odds ratio, 0.497; P = .036) is significantly associated with reduced VS growth when controlling for aspirin, statin, and tumor size on multivariate logistic regression. Conclusion Metformin use is associated with reduced volumetric VS growth.

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Serum samples were collected from each of 290 healthy dogs 6 months of age or older living in the Greater Metropolitan Manila (GMM) area over a 12 month period. These samples were examined by the Synbiotics DiroChek ® antigen capture test (San Diego, CA) for evidence of Dirofilaria immitis circulating antigen. At the time of the first sample 220 out of 290 examined were negative by the DiroChek test. Twelve months later 175 of the original 220 uninfected dogs were still uninfected. This is an incidence rate of 20%. This is the first incidence study on client owned dogs reported for D. immitis and illustrates that owners will participate in such studies which are essential if canine populations are to be monitored to evaluate the effect of control efforts.

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