UC San Diego bioengineers and GlySens describe in Science Translational Medicine an implantable glucose sensor with wireless telemetry that kept recording in animals for more than a year. If human trials and FDA review follow, it could spare patients finger sticks.
Rachel Stockton
Other Diseases
Sleep Disorder Linked to Parkinson's
Researchers at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center followed 27 patients whose REM sleep behaviour disorder preceded Parkinson's disease or Lewy body dementia by at least 15 years. Onset averaged age 49, with neurodegenerative disease appearing at a median age of 72.
Cancer
American Cancer Society Site Improved
The American Cancer Society rebuilt cancer.org, which draws 23 million visitors a year, with new search and navigation. The site is now organized into Learn About Cancer, Stay Healthy, Find Support & Treatment, Explore Research and Get Involved sections.
Lifestyle
Social Relation Linked to Longer Life
Brigham Young University researchers analyzed 148 studies covering more than 300,000 people and found those with strong social networks were 50 percent less likely to die early. They liken social isolation to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, while conceding the cause of the link is still unclear.
Lifestyle
Unecessary Labor Inductions Lead to Breathing Problems
Using Consortium on Safe Labor data, researchers found babies born at 34 to 37 weeks were far more likely to have respiratory illness than full-term infants, and even 37-week babies were three times as likely to have respiratory distress syndrome as those born at 39 or 40 weeks.
Lifestyle
Who Makes End of LIfe Decisions for Homeless?
Homeless people are especially unlikely to have an advance directive and often lack family nearby to help with decisions at the end of life. John Song and colleagues at the University of Minnesota ran a randomized trial comparing self-guided completion of an advance directive with assisted planning.
Lifestyle
Gastric Banding: Solution to Childhood Obesity?
The FDA is weighing whether to extend gastric banding, now approved only for severely obese adults 18 and over, to adolescents aged 14 to 17. An NIH observational study, Teen-LABS, is assessing the risks and benefits of bariatric surgery in teens.
Food Safety
Medical Devices Linked to 70,000 ER Visits
An FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health study counts 70,000 child emergency-room visits a year from medical devices, most often contact lenses, hypodermic needles and ear tubes. Pediatricians say devices are rarely adjusted for children's size, anatomy and physiology.
Advisories
Panel Rejects Plan to Curb Drug Abuse
An FDA advisory panel rejected the agency's plan to curb abuse of narcotics such as OxyContin, fentanyl and methadone because it asks for voluntary rather than mandatory prescriber training. Mandatory training would take an act of Congress.
Food Safety
Form of Viagara Found in Supplement
The FDA recalled Joyful Slim Herb Supplement, sold as a natural weight-loss herb, after analysis found the undeclared drug desmethyl sibutramine, which can sharply raise blood pressure and pulse. J&H Besta Corp pulled the product on July 16 and buyers are told to return it for a refund.
Lifestyle
"Shockumentary" Inspires Cosmetic Reform
The Personal Care Products Council proposed that cosmetics plants register with FDA, disclose ingredients and report serious adverse events. The plan follows the Story of Cosmetics video, which says fewer than 20 percent of cosmetic chemicals have been assessed by the safety panel.
Other Diseases
Scientists Find Culprits that Cause Celiac Disease
Researchers at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute say they have identified the specific gluten fragments that trigger celiac disease, after more than 200 patients ate bread, rye muffins or barley and gave blood tested against thousands of fragments.
Sci-Tech
Vocal Profiling Leads to Early Autism Diagnosis
A wearable recorder captured 3.1 million utterances from 232 children at home, and automated analysis of 12 acoustic parameters flagged autism spectrum disorders with 86% accuracy. Researchers say it could push diagnosis below the current average age of 5.7 years.
Miscellaneous
VBAC Policies: Should they Circumvent Mom's Wish?
New guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists call vaginal birth after cesarean a safe and appropriate choice for most women with a prior cesarean, now including those with two low-transverse incisions, twins, or an unknown scar type.
Miscellaneous
What is the Purpose of Doctors' Notes?
HIPAA's Privacy Rule already lets patients inspect and copy their records, yet few do, and the author doubts most would follow the dictated medical terminology. The OpenNotes pilot at Beth Israel Deaconess and Geisinger is testing online sharing of visit notes with primary care patients.
Nutrition
Children with Autism Unimpaired by Non-Varied Diet
University of Bristol researchers followed 79 children with autism spectrum symptoms for seven years alongside 14,000 other children and found that despite very narrow diets they grew normally, with slightly low vitamin C and D but less soda and fewer sweets than their peers.
Food Safety
"Undercover" Patients Study Reveals Errors
In a study led by Saul Weiner in Annals of Internal Medicine, actors posing as patients recorded their visits to expose "contextual errors" — mistakes that follow when doctors miss circumstances in a patient's life that bear on care.
Cancer
FDA to Determine Avastin's Fate
An FDA oncology panel meets July 20 to weigh whether Avastin keeps its breast cancer indication. The 2008 study behind its accelerated approval showed 5.5 extra months before the disease worsened; later research put the gain at 1 to 2.9 months.
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