June 2008 Briefing - Diabetes & Endocrinology

Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Diabetes & Endocrinology for June 2008. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.

Waist Size Determines Cardiovascular Disease Risk

MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- Waist circumference is effective in determining the risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, and is as effective as body mass index (BMI) in identifying individuals with cardiovascular risk factors, according to the results of a study published in the July 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

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CDC: Diabetes Prevalence on the Rise in the United States

MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- The prevalence of diabetes in the United States rose more than 3 million in roughly two years, according to data released June 24 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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Physical Activity Improves Children's Metabolic Health

MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- In pre-pubertal schoolchildren in the United Kingdom, sustained physical activity above the government-recommended intensity of three metabolic equivalents of thermogenesis for 60 minutes per day is associated with improved metabolic health without affecting body mass index (BMI). But fewer than half of boys and only one in eight girls meet this guideline, according to the results of a study published online June 30 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

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Aldosterone Effect on Cardiac Hypertrophy Studied in Mice

TUESDAY, June 24 (HealthDay News) -- The hormone aldosterone can lead to cardiac hypertrophy in mice via the cytokine cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), according to research published online June 19 in Endocrinology.

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Preeclampsia May Lead to Decreased Insulin Sensitivity

TUESDAY, June 24 (HealthDay News) -- Women with a history of preeclamptic pregnancy respond to increased visceral fat in an enhanced insulin-resistant manner that may be associated with impaired vasodilatation. Also, early-onset preeclampsia is associated with impaired insulin sensitivity later in life, according to the results of a study released online June 23 in advance of publication in the August issue of Hypertension.

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Weight Loss Linked to Low Levels of Fat Hormone

MONDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) -- Weight loss in obese individuals is associated with changes in brain activity in areas associated with eating behavior that can be reversed by injections of leptin, a hormone secreted by fat cells whose levels appear to fall with weight loss, according to a report published online June 20 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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Poor Fitness Linked to Mitochondrial Problems

MONDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity is associated with poorer physical fitness, decreased insulin sensitivity, and decreased expression of mitochondrial genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, independent of genetic factors, according to the results of a twin study released online May 6 in advance of publication in the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism.

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Article Examines Use of 'Key Opinion Leaders' in Drug Sales

FRIDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Influential doctors known as "key opinion leaders" are paid generous fees to influence their peers to prescribe a company's drugs and may in fact be considered salespeople by the industry, according to an article in the June 21 issue of BMJ.

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Diabetics May Be at Increased Risk of Hearing Loss

FRIDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Hearing loss is more prevalent among adult diabetics than among the non-diabetic population, according to the results of a study released online June 17 in advance of publication in the July 1 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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Statins Benefit Kidney Disease Patients with Dyslipidemia

FRIDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with mild-to-moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) are prone to abnormal lipid metabolism, which can be treated effectively with statins, but evidence of statins' effectiveness in hemodialysis patients is inconclusive, researchers report in the June 24 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Drug Improves Islet Transplant in Diabetic Mice

THURSDAY, June 19 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetic mice receiving a transplant of pancreatic islet cells have improved islet engraftment and function if given liraglutide, a long-acting human glucagon-like peptide 1 analogue, starting on the day of the transplant, according to the results of a study published online May 29 in Endocrinology.

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High-Fat Diet-Induced Diabetes Involves Brain Pathway

THURSDAY, June 19 (HealthDay News) -- Mice fed a high-fat diet do not become diabetic if a signaling pathway in the brain regulating insulin levels and insulin resistance is blocked, according to research published online June 12 in Endocrinology.

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Positive Outcomes for Drug-Eluting Stents in Diabetics

WEDNESDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Two types of drug-eluting stents result in a low need for repeat revascularization in patients with diabetes, with similar rates of revascularization, major adverse cardiac events and stent thrombosis, according to research published in the June 24 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Ketosis-Prone Diabetes Associated with Herpes Virus

TUESDAY, June 17 (HealthDay News) -- In a sub-Saharan African patient population, antibodies for the human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) are associated with ketosis-prone type 2 diabetes mellitus, researchers report in the June 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Two-Way Link Between Depression and Diabetes

TUESDAY, June 17 (HealthDay News) -- There is a modest association between incident type 2 diabetes and depressive symptoms at baseline, according to the results of a study published in the June 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Insulin Resistance Linked to Peripheral Arterial Disease

TUESDAY, June 17 (HealthDay News) -- Insulin resistance is strongly associated with peripheral arterial disease, and modifies the relationship between inflammation and peripheral arterial disease, according to research published online June 16 in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Vitamin D May Reduce Children's Diabetes Risk

MONDAY, June 16 (HealthDay News) -- Lower exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation in regions that are more distant from the equator is associated with a higher incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes, supporting the concept that vitamin D may play a role in reducing risk of the disease, according to research published online June 12 in Diabetologia.

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Sorafenib Effective for Advanced Thyroid Cancer

MONDAY, June 16 (HealthDay News) -- In advanced thyroid cancer, sorafenib improves or maintains disease control in about three-quarters of patients, with acceptable toxicity, according to research published online June 9 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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Subclinical Hypothyroidism Linked to Kidney Disease

FRIDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- People with poor kidney function appear to have a greater frequency of subclinical primary hypothyroidism than those with normal kidney function, with the prevalence rising as kidney function declines, according to a report published online June 11 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

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Rosiglitazone May Delay Diabetic Retinopathy Onset

THURSDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- Patients treated with rosiglitazone have delayed onset of proliferative diabetic retinopathy and also experience less visual acuity loss, according to a report published in the June issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

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Drug May Cut Risk of Invasive Breast Cancer in Some Women

WEDNESDAY, June 11 (HealthDay News) -- Raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor (ER) modulator, lowers the risk of invasive ER-positive breast cancers but not other types of breast cancers in women who have or are at high risk of coronary heart disease, researchers report in the June 18 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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Vitamin D Synthesis Linked to Colitis in Mice

WEDNESDAY, June 11 (HealthDay News) -- Levels of the enzyme that synthesizes vitamin D3, the active form of vitamin D important in immunity, are altered in the kidney and colon of a mouse model of colitis, and mice lacking the enzyme are more susceptible to colitis, according to a report published online June 5 in Endocrinology.

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Racial Disparities Widespread in Diabetes Care

TUESDAY, June 10 (HealthDay News) -- Racial disparities in diabetes outcomes are largely the result of variations in individual physicians' care of patients and, to a lesser extent, of sociodemographic factors, according to a report published in the June 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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FDA Adds Cancer Warning to Regranex Label

MONDAY, June 9 (HealthDay News) -- Officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have added a boxed warning to the label of Regranex (becaplermin) -- a cream that is used to treat diabetic foot ulcers that fail to heal -- due to an increased risk of cancer mortality in patients who use three or more tubes of the drug.

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Prevalence of Conn's Syndrome Lower Than Thought

FRIDAY, June 6 (HealthDay News) -- The prevalence of hyperaldosteronism, also known as Conn's syndrome, in people with hypertension is much lower than previously thought, according to a report in the June 7 issue of The Lancet.

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Low Doses of Resveratrol Slow Aging in Mice

FRIDAY, June 6 (HealthDay News) -- Resveratrol, a natural molecule found in red wine, appears to be as effective as calorie-restricted diets in slowing some aspects of aging in mice, based on gene expression profiling analysis, according to study findings published in the June 4 issue of PLoS One.

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Serotonin Regulates Fat and Feeding Independently

THURSDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) -- Serotonin regulates fat content and feeding rate independently in worms, suggesting that weight is not solely determined by feeding behavior, researchers report in the June 4 issue of Cell Metabolism.

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Diabetes Adds to Risk for Liver Cancer in Hepatitis C

THURSDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) -- Patients who have chronic hepatitis C and advanced cirrhosis face an increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma if they also have diabetes, according to research published in the June issue of Hepatology.

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Aliskiren May Protect Against Diabetic Nephropathy

WEDNESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- Type 2 diabetics struggling with nephropathy and hypertension had significantly lower albumin levels following treatment with losartan and aliskiren, a newly FDA-approved drug, according to a report in the June 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Drug Improves Outcomes in Diabetics with Stents

WEDNESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetics who receive stents have a reduced risk of death or myocardial infarction with longer clopidogrel use, according to the results of a study published in the June 10 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. In a related study, patients receiving drug-eluting stents for unprotected left main coronary artery disease generally have good long-term outcomes.

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Liver, Kidney Disease Linked in Type 2 Diabetes

WEDNESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- In people with type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with a moderately increased risk of chronic kidney disease, according to research released online April 2 in advance of publication in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

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Vitamin D Deficiency Prevalent in Young Children

WEDNESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- Vitamin D deficiency is common among infants and toddlers, and may be associated with demineralization, according to two studies published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. But calls for routine supplementation may be premature, according to an accompanying editorial.

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Genetic Lowering of 'Good' Cholesterol May Not Be Bad

TUESDAY, June 3 (HealthDay News) -- While low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol are a known risk factor for ischemic heart disease, genetically reduced HDL levels due to mutations in a cholesterol transport gene do not confer an increased risk of heart disease, according to an article published in the June 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Diabetes Trials Tend to Assess Surrogate Outcomes

TUESDAY, June 3 (HealthDay News) -- Many planned and ongoing diabetes trials do not measure patient-important outcomes, such as mortality and quality of life, but rather assess laboratory or surrogate outcomes, researchers report in an article published in the June 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Study Sheds Light on Role of T3 in Male Rat Reproduction

MONDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have found expression of iodothyronine 5'-deiodinase (5'-D), an enzyme that creates the active form of triiodothyronine (T3) from thyroxine (T4), in several tissues in the male reproductive tract, according to study findings released online May 8 in advance of publication in Endocrinology. These findings may help shed light on the poorly understood role of thyroid hormones in regulating reproductive function in reproduction organs other than gonads.

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Low-Dose Rotigotine Can Help Treat Restless Legs Syndrome

MONDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) -- Both the daytime and nighttime symptoms of restless legs syndrome can be relieved using a 24-hour transdermal patch containing low-dose rotigotine, according to study findings published online May 31 in The Lancet Neurology.

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