Medical News: ADA: Diagnose Diabetes with A1c Test – in Meeting Coverage, ADA from MedPage Today
underwriting
Rosiglitazone Doubles Risk of Heart Failure
Take Home Lesson:
Consider simply adding the usual recommended debits for CHF to the DM rate.
After all, the HF risk is doubled but not the mortality. And critics of this study question its statistical validity.
Actos Slows IMT
Thiazolidinediones such as pioglitazone have been shown to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes when given to patients at high risk of developing diabetes. But other studies have found that the drug class appears to inhibit the development of atherosclerosis.
Vitamin C + Insulin – New RX Possibilities for DM1
University of Oklahoma researchers shed light on treatment possibilities | NewsOK.com
The article does not reveal the number of humans studied but the findings are definitely interesting. Do watch the video because it offers additional information that is not in written form. You will be subjected to a short commercial for beef.
Ironic.
CHF + Anemia = 66% Higher Mortality Risk
Interesting study without much practical application if you are a mortality risk underwriter.
Interesting study with some practical use if you are a life expectancy underwriter.
Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body – New Link
I’ve added a link to the online version of Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body.
FH Does Matter
Yes, I know it is just a couple of little boxes on the medical exam.
Lung Screening Study – CT For Cancer Has Up To 33% False Positives
A positive screen was defined as any noncalcified nodule at least four millimeters in size or other radiographic finding deemed suspicious for cancer.
A false positive was defined as a positive screen with either a completed negative work-up or at least 12 months follow-up with no cancer diagnosis, the researchers said.
Analysis showed:
* An individual’s cumulative probability of at least one false-positive CT scan was 21% after one screen and 33% after two.
* For chest X-rays, the cumulative probabilities were 9% and 15% after one and two screens, respectively.
* In a multivariate analysis, people over 64 years of age had a 34% increased risk of a false-positive CT scan.
* Of those getting a CT false positive, 6.6% had an invasive diagnostic procedure and 1.6% had major surgery, compared with 4.2% and 1.9%, respectively, for chest X-ray false positives.There are no screening methods for lung cancer that have been shown to reduce death and illness from the disease, which is often only detected in its late stages.
According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for localized lung cancer is 49.5%, but that falls to 20.6% for disease that has spread outside the lung and 2.8% if there are distant metastases.
Richard Lehman’s Blog – May 24 2009
Non-Glucose Metabolism Determinants in HgbA1c
Cardiovascular Disease, Neuropathy, and Retinopathy — Diabetes Care
In a study of 648 apparently healthy individuals, 12% had an elevated total A 1 level (measured in that study) not explained by measurement error or glucose intolerance and remaining in the same range over 3.5 years in 90% of those initially with high and in 68% of those initially with low baseline levels (1). There was no correlation with glucose tolerance, with caloric intake, or with physical activity, but A 1 level was associated with cigarette use and with clinically overt atherosclerosis, leading Dekker to conclude that “factors unrelated to glucose metabolism are the main determinants of A 1” in nondiabetic individuals, perhaps with bearing on risk of what are considered complications of diabetes.
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