cdistaffing.com Blog

Eli Lilly & Co. said Tuesday it’s withdrawing its 10 yr. old med. Xigris (sepsis treatment) from all markets after the drug failed to show a benefit over a plecebo in a 1,680 person trial. How is it a drug like this makes it to market? How is it that people were given this and charged for it ( $104 million in sales in 2010) and if they didn’t die for lack of a real antibiotic aren’t getting a refund.? How is that the whole bunch responsible, aren’t in jail? Unbeliveable ! Doug

A report published yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that, every 15 minutes an individual in the US dies as a result of suicide.

They also report that since 1988 use of antidepressant use is up 400%.  I wonder what made 1988 such a happy year?

 A precise method has been developed that prospectively isolates just the stem cells that can treat multiple sclerosis and childhood diseases caused by the brain’s inability to make myelin.

–After analzying genes in different stem cell types, the scientists searched for and found the genes that were most likely to differentiate into stem cells that make myelin.

–The human stem cells were then successfully injected into the brains of mice with MS.

–The new method brings the prospect of clinical trials that much closer, the scientists say.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Even people whose blood pressure is slightly higher than normal may have a significantly increased risk of stroke, finds a new review of past research.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is known to be a powerful predictor of a person’s risk of stroke and heart disease. But less has been understood about the health consequences of prehypertension, which affects about one-third of American adults. The new study, published in the journal Neurology, suggests that prehypertensive people have on average a 55% greater risk of stroke than those with normal blood pressure.

Hypertension is defined as having systolic pressure of 140 mm Hg or higher and diastolic pressure of 90 mm Hg or higher. (Systolic pressure, the top number in a blood pressure reading, refers to blood pressure when the heart is pumping; diastolic pressure, the bottom number, refers to pressure between beats.)

Normal blood pressure is systolic pressure below 120 and diastolic pressure less than 80. Prehypertension — a new clinical category introduced by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 2003 — falls in between: systolic pressure of 120 to 139 and diastolic pressure of 80 to 89.

But those whose blood pressure registers in the upper half of the prehypertensive range may be at greater risk than those whose pressure is closer to normal. The new study found that the increased stroke risk associated with prehypertension was driven largely by people with systolic pressure of 130 to 139 and diastolic pressure of 85 to 89 — they were 79% more likely to have a stroke than those with normal pressure.

The association wasn’t statistically significant in people in the lower range of prehypertension, the study found.

Further, the elevated risk applied mostly to people younger than 65, who were 68% more likely to have a stroke than those with normal blood pressure. In elderly adults, the association again fell away, probably because the influence of blood pressure was outweighed in this group by risk factors associated with advanced age itself.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Part of what makes HIV such a nasty virus is that it attacks our immune system, which is what we have around to keep viruses from attacking us. We may have just figured out how to keep HIV from exploiting our immune response, meaning that our bodies could fight it off just like any other virus. When HIV enters your body, one of the first things that it does is incorporate a special type of cholesterol into its outer membrane. It steals this cholesterol from one of our immune system cells, called a plasmacytoid dendritic cell, or pDC. pDCs are the cells that first recognize the HIV virus, and they’re supposed to instruct other parts of our immune system (like T-cells) to go after it, but once HIV has stolen the pDC cholesterol, it can “reprogram” the pDC cells so that they don’t do their job, screwing up our entire immune system and allowing the HIV to spread. Most vaccines work by teaching T-cells new ways to attack viruses, but with HIV, that approach isn’t as effective, since the T-cells themselves have been compromised by the reprogrammed pDC cells. A research group at at The Johns Hopkins University has discovered that it’s possible to attack HIV before the virus is able to mess with the pDC cells, by simply disrupting its stolen cholesterol membrane. Without this membrane, the virus can’t mess up our immune system, and our bodies are then able to attack it like a normal virus, effectively preventing HIV from causing AIDS. At the moment, researchers have this working in the lab, which I take to mean that it’s effective in a petri dish. The next step will be animal trials, followed by human trials, which could lead to a vaccine that fights HIV and prevents AIDS.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

The study followed 346 men and women with varicose veins. They were randomly assigned to receive a standard surgical procedure called high ligation and saphenous vein stripping (HLS) or endovenous laser ablation (EVLT). 

After two years, the overall recurrence of varicose veins that caused symptoms like pain, heaviness, swelling, itching, or fatigue was similar among the two groups. By ultrasound study, more patients who had EVLT had their varicose veins return or reopen at the location of the procedure compared to those who had vein stripping surgery, however.

In the EVLT group, 32 people (18%) had their varicose veins come back in the area at the same place where they were originally treated compared to two people (1%) of the HLS group.

“The main implication of our study at this time point is that both procedures can be equally offered to the patients with [varicose veins],” says study researcher Knuth Rass, MD, a dermatologist at Saarland University Hospital in Homburg, Germany, in an email to WebMD. “But patients should be informed that there might be a risk for a higher rate of clinical recurrences beyond two years after EVLT.”

Rass continues to follow the patients in the study and says he will know more about their longer-term recurrence rates next year.

Cost of Treatment

The cost of vein stripping surgery ranges from $1,500 to $3,000 plus fees charged by the hospital or surgical center. Costs for EVLT range from $600 to $3,000, depending on how much of the vein needs to be treated.  Insurance may pick up part of the tab, however, if the varicose veins are painful or debilitating.

Against expectations, researchers found that patients in the EVLT group had slightly more pain in the first week after their procedures compared to those who had vein stripping surgery, but it went away more quickly, too.

Patients in the EVLT group reported having pain for an average of eight days after their procedures compared to 17 days in the HLS group.

The EVLT group also experienced more skin discoloration after their procedures

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

An Alabama pharmaceutical company issued a voluntary nationwide recall Friday for “multiple lots” of birth control pills due to what it described as a systemic “packaging error.”

A spokesman for Qualitest Pharmaceuticals said that “there are no immediate health issues currently” because of the packaging problems. Rather, he said, the chief concern is that women may unintentionally become pregnant after taking the oral contraceptive.

“The unintended consequence of pregnancy is really the issue,” spokesman Kevin Wiggins said. “That’s why the company took a drastic action.”

Wiggins said the recall involves 1.4 million packages that have been distributed to pharmacists and customers since last year.

According to a statement for the Huntsville-based company, “select blisters (found inside the pill box) were rotated 180 degrees within the card, reversing the weekly tablet orientation.” This helped to leave the pills’ lot number, as well as the expiration date, “no longer visible.”

“As a result of this packaging error, the daily regimen for these oral contraceptives may be incorrect and could leave women without adequate contraception, and at risk for unwanted pregnancy,” the company said.

A pharmacist noticed the issue and contacted the company by phone, Wiggins explained.

Qualitest urged those with such products to begin using a “non-hormonal” form of birth control and consult a health care provider or pharmacist. Pharmacies have been told to contact those who have gotten the faultily packaged pills.

The recall affects these products: Cyclafem 7/7/7, Cyclafem 1/35, Emoquette, Gildess FE 1.5/30, Gildess FE 1/20, Orsythia, Previfem and Tri-Previfem.

Customers can call 1-877-300-6153 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT to get their questions answered, arrange to return their pills or report problems.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Insulin spray may reverse early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, targeting memory loss symptoms, suggest U.S. researchers who conducted a small preliminary study of 104 people.

Previous studies found that low brain levels of insulin – the main hormone that turns sugar in the bloodstream into energy for cells – could contribute to Alzheimer’s, said Craft, the study leader.

Studies have shown those with diabetes and pre-diabetes are more at risk of developing Alzheimer’s, and autopsies showed diabetics whose blood sugar was well-managed had fewer of the brain tangles and plaques that are a part of Alzheimer’s, UPI.com reported.

The study, published online in the journal Archives of Neurology, found after two months of treatment, those treated with 20 mg of insulin had improved performance on a memory test, thinking skills and functional ability; while patients who got the higher dose of insulin had no change in their memory abilities and those who got the placebo saw a decline.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Pregnancy may not be the only thing intrauterine devices (IUDs) prevent. Women who use the contraceptive devices are about half as likely to develop cervical cancer, a new international study showed. That was true even though the women in the study were no less likely to be infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer.

Previous research had shown that use of IUDs reduce the risk for endometrial cancer, the authors of the study wrote. But it was unclear whether the devices – which are inserted into a woman’s uterus to keep her eggs from being fertilized by sperm – would have any effect on cervical, the second most common cancer in women.

For the study – published in the journal The Lancet Oncology – the researchers analyzed data from dozens of previous studies involving more than 20,000 women. The researchers found that IUD users had lower rates than other women of two major forms of cervical cancer, squamous cell carcinoma (44 percent lower) and adenocarcinoma/adenosquamous carcinoma (54 percent lower).

The study showed only and association and didn’t prove that IUD use help prevent cervical cancer. But experts say that inserting or removing an IUD might destroy precancerous cells, the Associated Press reported. Another possibility is that insertion or removal causes inflammation that evokes an immune response that prevents the progression of HPV infection to cervical cancer.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com