May 31, 2007

• Canadian Health Authority Approves Thelin For PAH
  (Encysive) -- Thelin's approval is based on the largest database of patients with PAH ever assembled in an original Canadian New Drug Submission, with more than 1,000 PAH patients receiving THELIN.
  

• Fixed And Autoadjusting CPAP Yield Different Cardiovascular Benefits
  (Medscape/Reuters) -- "CPAP and APAP do not seem to be interchangeable," Dr. Nicola Montano from University of Milan, told Reuters Health. "Indeed, even though they both reduce apneas and hypoxic events, they do not achieve this in the same way, and this fact seems to imply also a different effect on cardiovascular risk factors."
  

• Extra-Aggressive Form Of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Identified
  (EurekAlert) -- "These findings highlight the variability in the progression and outcome of IPF, and may explain, in part, the difficulty in obtaining significant and reproducible results in studies of therapeutic interventions in patients with IPF," said Dr Selman, who is the Director of Research at the National Institute of Respiratory Research in Mexico City.
  

• EU-Wide Organ Donor Card Proposed
  (BBC) -- Mr Kyprianou said: "Organ donations save lives. A European organ donor card, and common EU standards on the quality and safety of organ donations and transplants, could secure a sufficient and safe supply or organs."
  

• Human Genome Sciences And GlaxoSmithKline Initiate Second Phase 3 Clinical Trial Of LymphoStat-B(R) In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
  (PRNewswire) -- "We believe that LymphoStat-B could address the significant medical need of patients suffering from SLE, and we are pleased to announce that both Phase 3 trials of this novel and potentially important compound are now underway," said H. Thomas Watkins, President and Chief Executive Officer, HGS.
  

• Obstructive Sleep Apnea May Lurk Behind A-Fib
  (MedPage Today) -- A small study of patients treated for atrial fibrillation at the investigator's practice found that 19% had been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and 66% were at high risk for the condition, said Jonathan Gietzen, M.S., P.A.-C., of Heart Rhythm Consultants in Portland, Ore., and colleagues.
  

• Obstructive Sleep Apnea Wearies The Heart
  (MedPage Today) -- Recent evidence suggests that 60% of people hospitalized for myocardial infarction also have obstructive sleep apnea. Yet occurrence among the general population is only about 9%, said Jose R. Marquina, M.D.
  

• Sleep Apnea Patients Have Greatly Increased Risk Of Severe Car Crashes
  (Medical News Today) -- The study of 800 people with sleep apnea and 800 without the nighttime breathing disorder found that patients with sleep apnea were twice as likely as people without sleep apnea to have a car crash, and three to five times as likely to have a serious crash involving personal injury.
  

• World's First Lung Transplant On HIV Patient Performed
  (Reuters) -- The man, whose age was not disclosed, had terminal respiratory problems and the transplant was his only chance of survival, doctors said. The patient was said to be in good condition after the operation.
  

• Research May Yield Improved Treatment For Diseased Lungs
  (University of Wisconsin-Madison) -- A multi-institutional team of engineers, scientists and clinicians from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will study large-artery biomechanics that could play a role in heart failure in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
  

• Sleep Apnea Raises Pregnancy Complication Risk
  (MedPage Today) -- In a national study of almost four million deliveries, sleep apnea increased a woman's risk twofold for gestational diabetes and four-fold for pregnancy-induced hypertension, even after controlling for obesity.
  

• SSRIs In Pregnancy Not Associated With Cardiac Or Pulmonary Problems
  (MedPage Today) -- In a retrospective review of records of more than 25,000 pregnant women treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., from 1993 through 2005, there was no association between the mothers' SSRI use during pregnancy and the occurrence of congenital heart disease, ventricular septal defects, or persistent pulmonary hypertension in their children.
  

• La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company Reports Riquent Well Tolerated in Three Studies
  (PharmaLive) -- "These three presentations provide important, additional data that continue to indicate that Riquent is well tolerated even at much higher doses," said Deirdre Y. Gillespie, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company.
  

• Actelion Sees Positive Results In CTEPH As Boost For Tracleer
  (PharmaTimes) -- Actelion, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, is upbeat this week on news that its dual endothelin receptor antagonist Tracleer (bosentan) significantly improves pulmonary vascular resistance in patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).
  

• Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension
  (Medscape) -- An update on the diagnosis and treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
  

• Gilead Announces Presentation Of Long-Term Data For Ambrisentan
  (Yahoo) -- These long-term data are from patients who originally participated in the two pivotal Phase III ARIES studies and AMB-222, a Phase II study of patients who had previously discontinued other ERAs because of liver function abnormalities.
  

• Gilead May Gain The Advantage On Its Foes
  (TheStreet.com) -- Gilead Sciences' chief scientific officer said Monday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration might not require regular liver safety monitoring for patients taking ambrisentan, the company's experimental drug for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH.
  

• New Website Broadcasts Urgent Need For Lupus Clinical Trials
  (Medical News Today) -- The patient-friendly site is part of a year-long national initiative to educate the more than 1.5 million Americans with lupus-a chronic autoimmune disease for which there is no known cause, few medicines, and no cure-about the importance of participating in lupus clinical trials, and how to go about enrolling in one.
  

• Sleep Apnea May Increase Risk Of Diabetes
  (Huliq.com) -- The researchers followed the subjects for up to six years and found that patients diagnosed with sleep apnea had more than two-and-half times the risk of developing diabetes compared with those without the nighttime breathing disorder.
  

• Sleep Apnea Patients Have Greatly Increased Risk Of Severe Car Crashes
  (EurekAlert) -- The study of 800 people with sleep apnea and 800 without the nighttime breathing disorder found that patients with sleep apnea were twice as likely as people without sleep apnea to have a car crash, and three to five times as likely to have a serious crash involving personal injury. Overall, the sleep apnea group had a total of 250 crashes over three years, compared with 123 crashes in the group without sleep apnea.
  

• Vascana Findings To Be Presented At International Scleroderma Conference
  (Medical News Today) -- Most people with Scleroderma - a chronic disease causing thickening or tightening of the skin, blood vessels and internal organs - also suffer from Raynaud's syndrome as a secondary condition. Vascana aims to treat Raynaud's disease, a condition often resulting in severe pain caused by chronic vasospasm episodes in the hands, feet and other extremities.
  

• UPMC Performs First Beating Heart Transplant Procedure In The US
  (EurekAlert) -- Protected by its own nutrients and blood supply, a beating heart supported by an investigational organ preservation device was successfully transplanted into a 47-year-old man with congestive heart failure and pulmonary hypertension on Sunday, April 8.
  

• Treating Pulmonary Fibrosis And Pulmonary Hypertension
  (Medscape) -- What is the first-line drug therapy for patients with pulmonary hypertension caused by pulmonary fibrosis/interstitial lung disease?
  

• Reynaud's Syndrome And PAH
  (Medscape) -- Do all patients with Reynaud's syndrome have pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)?
  

• Intermune Completes Patient Enrollment In Phase 3 'Capacity' Program Evaluating Pirfenidone In Patients With IPF
  (PRNewswire) -- The CAPACITY program includes two multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled Phase 3 trials, named CAPACITY 1 and CAPACITY 2, designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pirfenidone in IPF patients with mild to moderate impairment in lung function.
  

• Reduced Survival For People With Heart Failure And Sleep Apnea
  (the heart.org) -- In an interview with heartwire, Javaheri said that these three factors, while independent predictors of reduced survival, likely work synergistically to increase risk. Sleep apnea, he noted, likely increases pulmonary hypertension, which in turn exacerbates right ventricular dysfunction. Reductions in diastolic blood pressure could also contribute to myocardial ischemia during sleep.
  

• Lupus Cured By Accident?
  (The Grand Rapids Press) -- Tyler didn't realize the disappearance of his lupus symptoms could be connected to the cancer drug until he read an article in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year noting Rituxan is one of several drugs being tested as a treatment for lupus.
  

• A Move To Create A Congressional Medal For Organ Donors
  (Scripps News) -- Democrats and Republicans from several states are backing the proposed medal program and want to name it after former Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, a one-time heart-and-lung transplant surgeon. Frist was among those in past years seeking more support to pass a "gift of life" congressional-medal program.
  

• Lawyers Meet Wednesday To Try To Reach Deal On Fen-Phen Millions
  (Lexington Herald-Leader) -- Lawyers involved in a legal battle over what happened to more than $200 million from a fen-phen lawsuit settlement will meet Wednesday to see whether they can hammer out a monetary settlement in the complex case.
  

• Lupus Cluster At Oilfield Points Finger At Pollution
  (New Scientist) -- An alarmingly high number of people living in houses built on top of a disused oilfield in New Mexico have been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus. It is the latest in a growing number of lupus clusters near polluted areas, and points towards the environmental triggers for this complex disease.
  

• Woman Seeking To Improve Lives Of Disabled People
  (The Daily and Sunday Review) -- Mosier said that one of the main goals of the group that she is trying to start -- which is called "Feel Great for Life" -- is to help disabled people financially.
  

• Police Find Transplant Patient By Tracking Cell
  (MSNBC) -- Police were able to find a 10-year-old boy in need of a life-saving heart transplant and get him to the operating room on time by tracking down his mother's cell phone signal.
  

• New Research Helps Overcome Major CPAP Problem
  (EurekAlert) -- The results of the Australian based study, published this month in the international publication Sleep, found at one month 77% of participants exposed to the intervention used CPAP for a least four hours a night, compared with 31% in the treatment as usual group.
  

• Home Telemonitoring Works, Canadian Study Claims
  (Healthcare IT News) -- The Canadian scholars, led by Guy Paré of the University of Montreal’s Health Administration department, concluded that home telemonitoring produces accurate and reliable data, empowers patients and influences their attitudes and behaviors, and may improve their medical conditions.
  

• Lung Allocation Score Alters Patients And Outcomes
  (Medscape) -- With the LAS just 2 years old, researchers presented the first round of studies to examine its impact on patient outcomes at the 27th annual meeting and scientific sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. The results are mixed but suggest that posttransplant mortality has increased in the LAS era.
  

• Treatment Guideline Improves Post Lung Transplant ICU Care
  (Medscape) -- Researchers have found that the use of a standardized treatment algorithm during postoperative intensive care shortens the time patients remain on ventilator support and reduces the likelihood of developing primary graft dysfunction, according to work presented at the 27th annual meeting and scientific sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation.
  

• New Company To Focus On Sleep-Related Disorders
  (The Trucker) -- With truckers in mind, Dr. James Duke and Dr. Bobby Daniel, DO, have teamed up to launch Safety Sleep Systems Inc. (SSSI), a new company focused on developing cost-effective solutions for those suffering from sleep-related medical issues.
  

• Tadalafil As Treatment For Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
  (Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia) -- Phosphodiesterase inhibitors like sildenafil have already been shown to improve functional capacity and hemodynamics in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Few studies address the effects of new phosphodiesterase inhibitors as tadalafil. We report a case of a patient with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension in functional class IV (New York Heart Association) with significant response to treatment with tadalafil.
  

• Blood Test Predicts Mortality In Hospitalized Heart Failure Patients, Says UCLA Researcher
  (EurekAlert) -- A simple blood test — beyond standard lab tests — taken at hospital admission strongly predicted in-hospital mortality risk for heart failure patients and may be useful in helping doctors decide which patients need higher-level monitoring and more intensive treatment.
  

• Biden Resolution Designates May 2007 As National Autoimmune Diseases Awareness Month
  (All American Patriots) -- The U.S. Senate unanimously passed U.S. Senator Joe Biden's (D-DE) resolution, S. Res. 116, which designates May 2007 as "National Autoimmune Diseases Awareness Month" and supports efforts to increase awareness of autoimmune diseases and increase funding for autoimmune disease research.
  

• Senate Rejects Drug Imports; House Has Similar Bill
  (Philadelphia Inquirer) -- On a 49-40 vote, the Senate required the administration to certify the safety and effectiveness of imported drugs before they can be imported, a requirement that officials have said they cannot meet.
  
  For more information, or to contact your elected officials about this, see Action Central

• Post-Heart-Transplant Survival Not Compromised In The Mildly Obese, UNOS Data Suggests
  (TheHeart.org) -- Although recent guidelines consider obesity a relative contraindication to heart transplantation, the postoperative survival of many "obese" patients is nearly as good as those who are merely "overweight," according to a retrospective study of more than 18 000 patients that used accepted body habitus categories based on body-mass index.
  

• Early Results Of The Cellcept(R) Spare The Nephron Study Examine Kidney Function
  (Earthtimes.org) -- Interim results from a multicenter trial investigating a novel kidney-sparing treatment protocol using CellCept(R) were presented at the American Transplant Congress. This and other Spare the Nephron (STN) trials in kidney and liver transplant recipients examine ways to prevent rejection without damaging kidneys.
  

• BioMarin Starts Phase 2a Study Of 6R-BH4 in Sickle Cell Disease
  (News-Medical.Net) -- Studies of SCD patients suggest that endothelial dysfunction may play a role in sickle cell disease, and studies in an animal model of SCD suggest the potential utility of 6R-BH4 in the treatment of the vascular problems found in this disease."
  

• Doctors Fail To Recognize Life-Threatening Serotonin Syndrome
  (OpEdNews) -- Studies indicate," he explains, "that mothers who take an SSRI during pregnancy have 1.5 to 2 times the risk of giving birth to a baby with a heart defect such as an atrial septal defect or ventricular septal defect, and are 6 times more likely to give birth to a baby with a severe and life-threatening lung disorder known as persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN).
  

• Critically Ill Youth Has Heavenly Flight As 'Cadet For A Day'
  (Rocky Mountain News) -- The pair's only child wore a green flight suit and sported the patches, boots, aviator glasses and jackets that cadets wear. Cadets donate money to pay for the program and have hosted 22 children since it started in 2000.
  

• Small Businesses’ Premiums Soar After Illness
  (New York Times) -- In a small workplace, as a result, if an employee or a covered dependent becomes seriously ill, or if someone has even a routine medical need like maternity care, the entire group may pay the price through steeply higher insurance rates.
  

• Lung Allocation Score Alters Patients And Outcomes
  (Medscape) -- With the LAS just 2 years old, researchers presented the first round of studies to examine its impact on patient outcomes at the 27th annual meeting and scientific sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. The results are mixed but suggest that posttransplant mortality has increased in the LAS era.
  

• Molecular Test Supports Weaning From Immunosuppressants
  (Medscape) -- A leukocyte gene expression assay was developed to monitor acute cellular rejection in heart transplant patients 2 or more months after surgery. Now, researchers at Drexel University in Philadelphia have found that the test accurately identifies patients who can be weaned from immunosuppressive therapy 1 or more years after transplant.
  

• Senate Likely To Back Drug Reimportation
  (Washington Post) -- The Senate cleared the way yesterday for the likely adoption of a measure that would legalize the reimportation of lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other countries, a move supporters say would save consumers $50 billion over 10 years.
  
  For more information, or to contact your elected officials about this, see Action Central

• Seneca Valley Senior Fills School Gallery With Emotion Of Transplant
  (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) -- When he was 14, Rocco was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension and was placed on medication. In spring 2006, he went into heart failure and received a heart and double lung transplant Sept. 6.
  

• Evaluating The Lung In Connective Tissue Disease
  (Medscape) -- How do you evaluate the lung in connective tissue disease? Are there simple clinical tests?
  

• Vasoreactivity Testing In Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
  (Medscape) -- The purpose of vasoreactivity testing in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is to identify the small minority of patients who may benefit from an oral calcium channel blocker (CCB) and thus avoid the complicated parenteral medications. However, as the therapies for PAH are becoming less complicated, is there still a role for vasoreactivity testing at all?
  

• Putting Extra 'Care' Into Health Care
  (Washington Post) -- In an age of impersonal medicine, marked by bottom-line thinking and rushed doctor-patient interactions, some doctors still buck the trend and go to extraordinary lengths to give their patients personal care. Patients who encounter that kind of care don't just find the difference striking, they often credit it with improving their health.
  

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