July 31, 2007

• Living Lung Transplants Found Life-Saving Option In PAH
  (MedPage Today) -- In a prospective but non-randomized study, five-year survival was 100% for patients getting a living-donor lobar lung transplant, according to Hiroshi Date, M.D., of the Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine.
  

• Report: Skipping Doses Could Be Deadly
  (Miami Herald) -- Consider it the other drug problem: Millions of people don't take their medicine correctly - or quit taking it altogether - and the consequences can be deadly.
  

• Diet-Drug Civil Trial For 2 Attorneys Delayed
  (Louisville Courier-Journal) -- In a ruling issued yesterday, Special Judge William Wehr postponed the September trial date to decide damages against attorneys William J. Gallion, 56; Shirley A. Cunningham Jr., 52; and Melbourne Mills Jr., 76. Wehr said the civil action would be rescheduled after criminal charges against the men are resolved.
  

• The Other High Blood Pressure
  (Times-Mail) -- When Janice Wade tells people she has pulmonary arterial hypertension, she usually gets one of two answers: “What is that?” or “I’ve had high blood pressure for years.”
  

•   GMTV--It's National Transplant Week
  (GMTV) -- Find out how you can save lives by signing up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.
  

• New Research May Predict Who Is At Risk To Develop Lupus
  (Newswise) -- Certain families produce higher levels of a specific molecule, called interferon-alpha, that primes the body’s immune system to turn on, and in some cases initiate an autoimmune attack on itself, according to new research from Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.
  

• Doing Battle With The Insurance Company In A Fight To Stay Alive
  (New York Times) -- A glorious blend of forces came together to save Gordon Hendrickson’s life; only his insurance company tried to stand in the way.
  

• Bill Would Let States Force Drug Discounts
  (Washington Post) -- U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen is preparing legislation that would allow states to make prescription drugs more affordable for low- and moderate-income Americans, a challenge to Bush administration policies that have thwarted such efforts in Maryland and elsewhere.
  
  For more information, or to contact your elected officials about this, see Action Central

• Unique Surveillance Programme Confirms The Clinical Safety Of Bosentan In PAH
  (Medical News Today) -- The unique two and a half year web-based surveillance programme generated real-world data from almost 5,000 bosentan-treated patients from 17 countries across Europe. This represents almost 80% of all people treated with the drug between May 2002 and November 2004.
  

• The Reduced Effect Of Leptin Could Contribute To Respiratory Impairment
  (Medical News Today) -- Patients suffering from the obesity-hypoventilation syndrome develop severe consequences, such as respiratory failure, pulmonary hypertension and heart failure.
  

• Resolution Recognizing IPF And CPF's National IPF Awareness Week Passes Senate
  (Earthtimes.org) -- Senate Concurrent Resolution 42 (S. Con. Res. 42) recognizes the CPF's National IPF Awareness Week and raises the importance of the urgent need to identify viable treatments and an eventual cure for IPF, a disease that is becoming alarmingly more prevalent in the United States.
  

• Letting Go of the Rope — Aggressive Treatment, Hospice Care, and Open Access
  (NEJM) -- More Americans are choosing hospice for end-of-life care, but ironically, hospice patients increasingly are forced to give up effective palliative treatments along with aggressive medical intervention.
  

• Study Says Didgeridoo Can Help With Sleep Apnea
  (CBS4 Denver) -- The British Medical Journal published a study recently that found that regular didgeridoo playing strengthens the muscles in the back of the throat. That and the deep breathing required help reduce snoring and daytime sleepiness in people with moderate sleep apnea.
  

• St. Jude Starts Trial Of Aortic Valve
  (UPI) -- "The promise of the Trifecta tissue valve to potentially deliver superior hemodynamic performance to currently available stented or stentless aortic valves is very exciting," said study investigator Tirone David, head of the division of cardiovascular surgery at Toronto General Hospital.
  

• Judge Considering Staying Civil Trial Against Fen-Phen Lawyers
  (Kentucky.com) -- Special Judge William Wehr said the civil trial could be delayed until a federal fraud case against the attorneys is settled.
  

• Communication Now Part Of The Cure
  (USA Today) -- Fine realized that night that having an advocate to act as "eyes and ears" for a patient debilitated by illness is crucial. "There are so many patients who can't speak for themselves because they're in pain, or frightened, or feeble, or under the influence of medication or drugs," he says.
  

• Toddler Who Gained, Gave Organs Dies
  (Columbus Dispatch) -- Children's Hospital told WBNS-TV (Channel 10) last night that 21-month-old Jason Wolfe died yesterday in its intensive-care unit. He had been seriously ill there for several months.
  

• Low 'Health Literacy' Increases Patients' Chance Of Death
  (USA Today) -- Internist David Baker calls it the "Aha! moment," that moment when it finally clicks for patients. They get what their doctor or nurse has been trying to explain. They get what's wrong with them. They get what they're supposed to do to take care of themselves.
  

• Red Cell Substitute May Work Against Sickle Cell Disease
  (HealthDay News) -- The researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children at the University of Toronto tested HRC 101 on normal mice and mice that had been genetically bred to mimic sickle cell disease. The sickle cell mice that were given HRC 101 tolerated a low-oxygen environment five times longer than those without the treatment.
  

• Doctor's Soul Is In His Lungs
  (Kentucky.com) -- Dr. Joseph P. "Jay" Zwischenberger, a Kentucky native, has been working on plans for an artificial lung for 25 years. He brought the project with him when he came from the University of Texas to become chairman of surgery at UK in May.
  

• Illness That Put Boy, 12, In Spotlight Ends His Life
  (The Vancouver Sun) -- Dylan Bell's courage stood out during his 10-year battle with rare, fatal lung disease.
  

• How Well Do You Know Your Healthcare Provider?
  (LA Times) -- Even in this digital age — when one can get the temperature in Kuala Lumpur or the Zuma Beach surf report at the click of a button — most people still rely on word of mouth to pick their doctor or check up on their local hospital.
  

• There She Is, Mrs. Indiana
  (Terre Haute News) -- Tara Tate has since overcome the mental strife often associated with the chronic, inflammatory disease known as Lupus, from which she suffers.
  

• Democrats Press House To Expand Health Care Bill
  (New York Times) -- After a rare bipartisan agreement in the Senate to expand insurance coverage for low-income children, House Democrats have drafted an even broader plan that also calls for major changes in Medicare and promises to intensify the battle with the White House over health care.
  
  For more information, or to contact your elected officials about this, see Action Central

• Orphans Join European Pharma Family
  (Pharmafocus) -- After 17 years Europe has finally caught up with US orphan drug legislation and the last five years have seen a proliferation of orphan drug activity, says Steve Seget.
  

• Organ Donation After Cardiac Death
  (NEJM) -- Although the numbers of organ donors and transplantations in the United States have more than doubled over the past 20 years (see line graph), the demand for organs continues to dwarf the supply. In 2006, there were about 29,000 solid-organ transplantations; as of June 2007, there were about 97,000 people on waiting lists for organ transplantation.
  

• Lung Transplant Aimee Recovering Slowly
  (ABC Online, Australia) -- Five months ago, Aimee Blakiston was critically ill with pulmonary hypertension, requiring a life saving lung and heart transplant. Her family moved to Perth from Dardanup to be beside her bed. During that agonising time of waiting, says her father Ian, the family has received "amazing" comfort and support from the community and from complete strangers.
  

• How About a Nice Cup of Cocoa?
  (Health And Age) -- There have been reports in recent years that have turned the guilty pleasure of eating dark chocolate into a healthful activity (provided you count the calories, too). Now the Journal of the American Medical Association has published a report from Germany that supports the idea of a little daily chocolate intake.
  

• When To Let Go? Medicine's Top Dilemma
  (New York Times) -- End-of-life issues top the list of ethical dilemmas hospitals face as medical progress enables doctors to extend an endangered life to the hard-to-determine point where they may actually only be dragging out death.
  

• Osteoporosis In Children With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Linked To Disease Duration
  (Doctors Guide) -- Studies of adults with SLE have shown an increased risk of decreased bone mineral density (BMD), but this relationship has not been studied in paediatric patients, write researchers Sandrine Compeyrot-Lacassagne, Division of Rheumatology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.
  

• Better Hospital Care Means More Lives Saved
  (HealthDay News) -- According to the researchers, if the lowest-ranked hospitals had the same death rates as top-ranked hospitals, 2,200 fewer older Americans would die each year from heart attacks, congestive heart failure or pneumonia.
  

• New Method Could Pull The Mask Off Apnea Treatment
  (MedPage Today) -- Delivering warm, humidified air through a nasal cannula can significantly reduce the symptoms of mild obstructive sleep apnea, researchers here say.
  

• Inappropriate Prescribing For Older Patients A Growing Problem
  (iVillage Total Health) -- Too many older people are being prescribed too many medicines or the wrong drugs, and more research needs to be done to find out how to fix the problem, say two papers published in this week's issue of The Lancet medical journal.

• Encysive Pharmaceuticals Provides Update For Thelin
  (Encysive) -- Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced that the Company and officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a formal Class A preliminary dispute resolution meeting regarding the June 15th approvable letter and the status of our New Drug Application (NDA) for Thelin(tm) (sitaxsentan sodium).
  

• Study To Asses Device For Sleep Apnea
  (Medical News Today) -- This study will evaluate the effectiveness of a small device that is implanted under the chin for the purpose of opening the airway and reducing or eliminating Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). This device is implanted during a brief surgical procedure. Later, it is individually adjusted, as needed, for each individual patient, to reduce or stop collapse and open the airway.
  

• Scleroderma Outlook Improves As Survival Increases
  (Medical News Today) -- Individuals with scleroderma are living significantly longer, compared with 30 years ago, and the physicians who treat this rare disease of connective tissue hope the newer drugs now on the market may extend lives even further.
  

• New Method To Estimate Sickle Cell Disease Severity
  (News-Medical.Net) -- The reliability of the model was supported by analysis of two independent patient groups. In group one, the severity score was related to disease severity based on the opinion of expert clinicians. In the other group, the severity score was related to the presence and severity of pulmonary hypertension and the risk of death.
  

• TRIUMPH Trial Enrollment To Close
  (United Therapeutics) -- Lung Rx, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Therapeutics Corporation, announced today that patient enrollment in its TRIUMPH (TReprostinil Sodium Inhalation Used in the Management of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension) registration trial will close on July 13, 2007.
  

• First Lung Transplants In Mice Lay Groundwork For New Drugs To Prevent Transplant Rejection In Humans
  (Washington University in St. Louis) -- Ultimately, the mouse model could pave the way for developing new therapies to prevent lung transplant rejection - a major problem that limits the long-term success of the procedure. The mouse model is described in the June issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.
  

• Some Chronically Ill Adults Wait For Medicare
  (New York Times) -- Researchers studied what happened when people who had not had insurance suddenly could have their health care paid for by the federal government.
  

• Finding Dr. Right For A Serious Diagnosis
  (New York Times) -- When you get a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, you want to find the doctors and hospitals that can provide the best possible care. Not only do you want the right treatment, provided by a medical expert in whom you can feel confident. You should also want a doctor who treats you with respect, listens to your questions and concerns, and responds to them in an appropriate and timely manner.
  

• What Can Nitric Oxide Do For Me?
  (LA Times) -- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the supplement nitric oxide?
  

• The Impact Of Increased Body Mass Index On Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
  (ImmuneSupport.com) -- Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of an increased body mass index (BMI) on disease activity, damage accrual, fatigue, self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and Fibromyalgia in patients with lupus using longitudinal data from LUMINA, a large multiethnic cohort.
  

•   Change In Law Urged To Cure Organs Shortage
  (Scotsman) -- The Lothians backbencher wants to introduce an "opt out" system so medical staff can assume a dead person's organs are available to save other people's lives unless the individual has expressly said otherwise.
  

• Fen-Phen User Wins $75K Jury Award
  (InjuryBoard.com) -- Virginia Cavender has been awarded $75,000 from a federal court jury in St. Louis for claims that pharmaceutical giant Wyeth's diet drug Fen-Phen caused damage to her heart valves.
  

• FDA Approves One Endothelin Antagonist for PAH, Nixes Another
  (Medscape) -- A CME recap of Letairis and Thelin
  

• A Battle Over Expansion Of Children’s Insurance
  (New York Times) -- The seemingly uncontroversial goal of insuring more children has become the focus of an ideological battle between the White House The seemingly uncontroversial goal of insuring more children has become the focus of an ideological battle between the White House and Congress. The fight epitomizes fundamental disagreements over the future of the nation’s health care system and the role of government.
  
  For more information, or to contact your elected officials about this, see Action Central

• Pulmonary Hypertension In COPD
  (Medscape) -- Multiple mechanisms can result in pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). These include the interrelating effects of air trapping, increased lung capillary pressure, increased right ventricular end-diastolic pressure, hypoxia, hypercapnia, and activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
  

•   Cystic Fibrosis Group To Press HSE On Transplant Lists
  (Irish Independent) -- "The criteria (for organ transplants) is changing all the time because there is such a shortage of organs. We are trying to evaluate what that criteria is because we have no idea as it currently stands," said CFA chief executive Godfrey Fletcher.
  

• 2008 Candidates Vow To Overhaul U.S. Health Care
  (New York Times) -- There is no better measure of the power of the health care issue than this: Sixteen months before Election Day, presidential candidates in both parties are promising to overhaul the system and cover more — if not all — of the 44.8 million people without insurance.
  

• Potential Organ Donors Fear Losing Insurance
  (Medical News Today) -- According to a new review in American Journal of Transplantation, people who donate their kidney or part of their liver to help someone else may themselves encounter difficulty with life and health insurance, despite insurance companies saying otherwise.
  

• Iloprost For Lung Lesions
  (WHOI) -- Iloprost is currently in a phase II trial that will enroll about 150 patients. People who are interested in enrolling in the study are first asked to have a bronchoscopy. A narrow viewing tube is placed into the lungs to obtain a small biopsy of lung tissue. The sample is sent to a laboratory to rule out lung cancer and look for the presence of premalignant lesions.
  

• As Costs Of Drugs Shift To Consumers, Spending Drops
  (HealthDay News) -- "Prescription drugs are just like apples or breakfast cereal. When they increase in price, patients use less of them, and that's true even of patients who have chronic illnesses," said Dana Goldman, lead author of a study appearing in the July 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Cost-sharing can have powerful effects on the way people fill their medications."
  

• Keeping Patients’ Details Private, Even From Kin
  (New York Times) -- Experts say many providers do not understand the law, have not trained their staff members to apply it judiciously, or are fearful of the threat of fines and jail terms — although no penalty has been levied in four years.
  

• New Approach To Pulmonary Hypertension Shows Promise
  (EurekAlert) -- The U of A researchers believe they've made a breakthrough in their discovery of the role that nuclear-factor-of-activated-T-lymphocytes (NFAT) play in the cause of the disease. The researchers have identified NFAT as a potential controlling element of pulmonary hypertension in both human tissues and animal models.
  

• Cardiac Surgery In Patients With Liver Cirrhosis
  (EurekAlert) -- Led by Farzan Filsoufi, of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, NY, researchers conducted a retrospective study of patients who underwent cardiac surgery at Mt. Sinai Medical Center between January 1998 and December 2004, and identified 27 patients who had cirrhosis. Of these, 18 patients had cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (heart-lung machine) while the other 9 had surgery without using the heart-lung machine.
  

• Lung Trouble May Raise Heart Risk
  (HealthDay News) -- Having reduced lung capacity may increase your risk of heart attack and stroke, a group of New Zealand researchers report.
  

• Pill To Make Dieters 'Feel Full'
  (BBC) -- They liken the effect to eating a bowl of spaghetti and say the pill can stop hunger for a few hours.
  

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