Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Diabetes & Endocrinology for May 2006. 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.
Medicare Drug Benefit Limit Linked to Mortality Risk
WEDNESDAY, May 31 (HealthDay News) -- Limiting Medicare+Choice recipients' drug benefits means lower drug costs but is associated with poorer health, according to research published in the June 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Canadians Have Better Access to Health Care Than Americans
WEDNESDAY, May 31 (HealthDay News) -- The Canadian health care system affords its citizens more equitable access to health care compared with their counterparts in the United States, thanks to universal coverage, according to a study published online May 30 by the American Journal of Public Health.
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Smoking, Lipids and Diabetes Have Different Impact on PAD
TUESDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- While smoking, lipids and inflammation are known to contribute to the progression of large-vessel (LV) peripheral arterial disease (PAD), only diabetes significantly predicts small-vessel (SV) PAD, according to a study published online May 30 in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
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Few Patients Consume Major Slice of U.S. Health Care Pie
TUESDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- A small percentage of the U.S. population continues to account for a disproportionate share of total U.S. health care spending for doctors, hospitals, prescription drugs and other personal health care services, according to a May report published by the U.S. Health and Human Service's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
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Trimming Red Meat from Diet May Help Type 2 Diabetics
TUESDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- Cutting red meat out of the diet of type 2 diabetics with macroalbuminuria reduces their urinary albumin excretion rate (UAER) and boosts their polyunsaturated fatty acid levels, researchers report in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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Higher Fasting Leptin Levels May Cut Appetite in the Elderly
TUESDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- Altered fasting and postprandial leptin and insulin levels may cause elderly patients to experience longer periods of satiation after meals, a phenomenon that could explain the so-called "anorexia of aging," according to a report in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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Diabetes Prevalence on the Rise in U.S. Adults
TUESDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- The crude prevalence of diagnosed diabetes among the U.S. adult population rose from 5.1 percent for the years 1988-1994 to 6.5 percent for the years 1999-2002, but the crude prevalence of undiagnosed cases remained stable, at 2.7 percent for the first period and 2.8 percent for the second period, according to a study published in the June issue of Diabetes Care.
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Starch and Fiber Reduce Glucose and Insulin Response
MONDAY, May 29 (HealthDay News) -- Increasing consumption of resistant starch and soluble fiber can significantly reduce the glucose and insulin response in both normal-weight and overweight women, according to a study in the May issue of Diabetes Care.
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Mid-Life Metabolic Syndrome Increases Heart Failure Risk
FRIDAY, May 26 (HealthDay News) -- Middle-aged men with metabolic syndrome may have a nearly doubled risk of developing subsequent heart failure, according to a study published online May 22 in Heart.
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Teens with Type 2 Diabetes Face Unique Challenges
FRIDAY, May 26 (HealthDay News) -- Parents of adolescents with type 2 diabetes believe factors such as a perceived lack of normalcy influence their children's self-management of the disease, according to a study in the May issue of Diabetes Care.
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Genetic Defect Predisposes to Benign Pituitary Tumors
THURSDAY, May 25 (HealthDay News) -- A low-penetrance genetic defect has been identified in individuals who are predisposed to developing pituitary adenomas, according to a Finnish study published in the May 26 issue of Science. Two mutations in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) gene may be responsible for 16 percent of all pituitary adenomas that secrete growth hormone, the report suggests.
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Diabetic Teens Limit Carbohydrates But Not Fat
WEDNESDAY, May 24 (HealthDay News) -- Adolescents with type 1 diabetes obtain more calories from fat than carbohydrates and exceed the recommended fat intake compared with adolescents without diabetes, according to a study in the May issue of Diabetes Care.
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DNA Microbubbles Deliver Insulin Gene to Rat Pancreas
WEDNESDAY, May 24 (HealthDay News) -- A technique called ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction, or UTMD, can be used to deliver insulin genes to pancreatic beta-islet cells in rats, according to a report published online May 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
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U.K. Statin Threshold Found Cheaper, But Less Effective
WEDNESDAY, May 24 (HealthDay News) -- The U.K. national recommendation for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with statin medications is significantly less expensive but also less effective than the U.S. and European recommendations, according to a study published online May 22 in Heart.
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Unnecessary Tests During Physicals Could Cost Millions
TUESDAY, May 23 (HealthDay News) -- Unnecessary medical interventions during routine office visits for preventive medical exams could be costing $47 million to $194 million a year in the United States, according to a report in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
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Statin Use Not Linked to Increased Breast Cancer Risk
TUESDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- In postmenopausal women, statin use is not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, while one class of drugs -- hydrophobic statins -- may actually reduce the risk, according to a study in the May 17 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
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Mortality Low After Bariatric Surgery at Academic Centers
MONDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- A national audit of bariatric surgeries performed at academic centers in the United States suggests that the risk of mortality within 30 days of surgery is less than 1 percent, and many hospitals are performing laparoscopic procedures, according to a report published in the May issue of the Archives of Surgery.
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Type 1 Diabetes Risk Higher With Affected Dad Than Mom
FRIDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- Fathers with type 1 diabetes are more likely to have children with the disease than diabetic mothers, especially if they were diagnosed at an early age, according to a report in the May issue of Diabetes.
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Rates of Type 1 Diabetes Complications Decline in U.S.
FRIDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- Rates of type 1 diabetes-related mortality, renal failure and neuropathy have declined in the United States since the 1950s, while rates of other diabetes-related complications such as coronary artery disease have remained unchanged, according to a study in the May issue of Diabetes.
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Islets from Younger Donors Better at Reversing Diabetes
FRIDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- Pancreatic islets isolated from cadaveric donors 40 years old or under have a better insulin secretory response and are more successful at reversing diabetes in mice and in patients with type 1 diabetes, according to a study in the May issue of Diabetes.
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One-Quarter of Elders May Have Poor Health Literacy
THURSDAY, May 11 (HealthDay News) -- Almost one-quarter of elderly people surveyed in two U.S. cities have only limited health literacy, according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
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Microalbuminuria Associated with Insulin Resistance
THURSDAY, May 11 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with type 2 diabetes, declines in the glucose disposal rate increase the risk of developing microalbuminuria, according to a study in the May issue of Diabetes.
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Frivolous Claims Account for Small Fraction of Costs
WEDNESDAY, May 10 (HealthDay News) -- The majority of resources involved in malpractice claims go toward resolving and paying those that involve errors, indicating it may be more cost-effective to streamline claims processing rather than discourage claims, according to a study in the May 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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New Donor Factor May Affect Kidney-Graft Outcomes
WEDNESDAY, May 10 (HealthDay News) -- A newly identified donor factor, an allotype of the C3 complement molecule, may be associated with better long-term outcomes for patients who receive cadaveric kidney grafts, according to a study in the May 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Pain Management Program Improves Pain Assessment
TUESDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- A pain management instrument that includes enhanced pain assessments and nursing staff updates improves some aspects of pain management in hospitalized adults, but not overall pain scores, according to one of the largest studies of its kind reported in the May 8 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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Obesity Evident by Age 11 Unlikely to Resolve with Age
FRIDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- About 25 percent of children are obese or overweight by age 11 or 12, and the excess weight is likely to persist into adolescence, according to a study of London schoolchildren published online May 5 in BMJ.
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Corticosteroid Use Associated with Adrenal Insufficiency
FRIDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- Patients taking oral or inhaled corticosteroids are at a dose-related increased risk of developing adrenal insufficiency, according to a study in the May issue of Thorax.
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Fewer Vascular Problems in Untreated Parkinson Patients
THURSDAY, May 4 (HealthDay News) -- Untreated patients with Parkinson disease are less likely to have vascular disorders including diabetes, hypertension and high serum lipids than patients without Parkinson disease, according to a report in the May issue of Stroke. The authors attribute this observation to impaired autonomic activity in Parkinson patients.
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Middle-Aged Patients in U.K. Healthier Than Americans
TUESDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- Despite spending about twice as much per capita on medical care in the United States, middle-aged and older Americans are more likely than Britons the same age to have a range of serious ailments, according to a study published in the May 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Higher-Income Uninsured Lack Preventive Screening
TUESDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- A higher income does not ensure that adults without health insurance will receive needed screening tests for cancer, diabetes and heart disease, according to a study published in the May 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Prevalence of Diabetes Rising in U.S. Adolescents
TUESDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- Some 134,000 U.S. adolescents may have diabetes and another 2.8 million may have impaired fasting glucose levels, according to a study in the May issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
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More Than Half of Diabetic Youths Have Bad Eating Habits
TUESDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- Fewer than half of young people with diabetes adhere to the American Diabetes Association's dietary recommendations, according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
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Bone Marrow Stem Cells Repair Kidney Damage
MONDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- Bone marrow cells can repair kidney damage and restore kidney function in a mouse model of Alport syndrome, a kidney disease associated with collagen mutations that destroy glomeruli and lead to renal failure, according to a report published online April 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
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