A recent study conducted by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University has discovered that adults with diabetes who exercise according to guidelines can lower their risk of premature death regardless of the number of hours spent sitting per day. This is the first study to demonstrate that regular exercise can reverse the risks of sitting for long periods, particularly in individuals with diabetes. The results of this study were published in the journal Diabetes Care.
The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have recently issued new guidelines for the management of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), such as heart attacks. The guidelines merge earlier recommendations for both forms of ACS—STEMI (severe) and NSTEMI—into one set of guidelines.
The study examines the best cutoff points of the Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) to identify persons at risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among a Mexican adult population. Because there is current uncertainty over the thresholds, the study compares two approaches: percentile distribution and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
The FDA implemented a significant change to make clozapine, the only prescription drug for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, more widely available. Patients once had to undergo frequent blood tests before they could have their prescriptions filled because of a potentially lethal but rare side effect, neutropenia, which decreases white blood cell levels and compromises the immune system. But after years of complaint from doctors, pharmacists, and families, the FDA eliminated this requirement.
Medtronic received FDA approval for its BrainSense Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS) system and the BrainSense Electrode Identifier (EI) to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease. This technology represents a major step forward in treatment by allowing the device to adapt stimulation automatically in real-time based on the neural activity of the patient.
