July 31, 2008

• Endothelin Antagonist Trial In Mildly Symptomatic PAH: The EARLY Study
  (Medscape ) -- The Endothelin Antagonist Trial in Mildly Symptomatic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Patients (EARLY) study is the first randomized, double-blind, multicentre, placebo-controlled clinical trial designed to examine the role of pharmacotherapy, and specifically endothelin receptor antagonism, on disease progression in patients with PAH who were FC 2 at enrollment.
  

• Dubuque Boy Undergoes Transplant
  (RedOrbit ) -- The procedure was Nick's second transplant. A rare lung ailment called primary pulmonary hypertension led to his first transplant a decade ago. Doctors had hoped the first transplanted lungs would grow with Nick, but they were compromised by chronic rejection, and his condition gradually worsened.
  

•   MPPs Reopen Organ-Donation Debate
  (Toronto Star ) -- Ontario legislators, anxious to trim a growing list of people waiting for an organ, are trying to rekindle the lingering debate over whether everyone should be considered a would-be organ donor unless they explicitly indicate otherwise.
  

• Prosecutors Question Fen-Phen Lawyers Assets
  (Lexington Herald-Leader ) -- Federal prosecutors say two lawyers accused of taking millions of dollars from their clients should not be released from jail because the two men's assets cannot be traced.
  

• Stem Cell Hope For Scots Girl Slowly Turning Into Stone
  (Glasgow Daily Record ) -- A US case using the patient's own stem cells led to one girl being transformed within six months of treatment.
  

•   Family Backs Call For Organ Donor Overhaul
  (Gold Coast Mail ) -- Labor backbencher Karen Struthers, who is chairing the inquiry into organ donations, said the government was concerned Australia still had one of the developed world's lowest organ donation rates - up to three times lower than in European countries.
  

• Note To People With Scarred And Stiffened Lungs: Monitor Your Sleep Before Severe Fatigue Sets In
  (EurekAlert ) -- Senior study investigator and pulmonologist Sonye Danoff, M.D., Ph.D., who treated Spaeth, found more than twice the amount of nighttime sleep disturbances and double the number of daytime episodes of drowsiness among 41 men and women with so-called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis than in people with healthy lungs.
  

• Major Gaps In Sleep Apnea Research Identified
  (MedPage Today ) -- Although sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease appear intertwined, little is known about the mechanics of the relationship, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association said in a joint statement.
  

• Kentucky Children's Heart Center Opens
  (University of Kentucky ) -- UK HealthCare's Kentucky Children's Hospital recently established the Kentucky Children's Heart Center. The full-service center provides inpatient and outpatient diagnostic and treatment services for children with congenital or acquired heart disease. Treatment also encompasses patients who have advanced into adulthood, providing the consistency of comprehensive care important to favorable long-term outcomes.
  

• PAH More Severe In Carriers Of BMPR2 Mutation
  (Medscape/Reuters ) -- Among patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), those with germline mutations in the gene encoding bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 (BMPR2) present at an earlier age and with more severe hemodynamic compromise, according to findings from a French study.
  

• Donor's Age Not Linked To Poor Outcomes In Liver Transplants
  (HealthDay News ) -- "Data from this series suggest that the continued use of selected older donors is a safe method of expanding the liver donor pool, even for hepatitis C-positive recipients."
  

• Sleep Apnea May Spur Night Heart Attacks
  (WebMD ) -- Obstructive sleep apnea "may be a trigger" for heart attacks, write the researchers, who included the Mayo Clinic's Fatima Kuniyoshi, PhD. Kuniyoshi's team calls for further studies to see if obstructive sleep apnea treatment reduces heart attack risk, especially at night.
  

• Second Fen-Phen Lawyer Seeks Release From Jail
  (Lexington Herald-Leader ) -- Shirley Cunningham Jr. wants a federal judge to release him from the Boone County jail, pending a second trial on criminal charges that he defrauded former fen-phen clients.
  

• Transplant Games Celebrated Success Of Organ Donations
  (NephrOnline ) -- Georgene suffered from pulmonary hypertension, and endured an eleven-month hospital stay, waiting for and recovering from heart/double lung transplant nearly 10 years ago. Immunosuppression led to kidney failure and another transplant two years ago.
  

• Organ Donation Finding Place Online In Texas, Other States
  (The Dallas Morning News ) -- Mr. Berwick spent five years on the waiting list for heart and lung transplants. He now manages his pulmonary hypertension with medication, but he knows he could be back on those lists if his condition deteriorates.
  

• Ikaria's INOflo (Nitric Oxide) For Inhalation Approved In Japan
  (PRNewswire ) -- Ikaria Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary INO Therapeutics LLC, announced today that Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) has approved INOflo(R) (nitric oxide) for inhalation for improvement of hypoxic respiratory failure (HRF) with concurrent pulmonary hypertension in neonates.
  

• FDA Safety Changes: Serevent Diskus, Letairis, Antibiotics
  (Medscape ) -- The US Food and Drug Administration has approved safety labeling revisions to advise of drug interactions that can increase the risk for cardiovascular adverse events in patients receiving treatment with salmeterol xinafoate, the potential for fluid retention and peripheral edema in patients receiving ambrisentan therapy, and the potential for the development of Clostridium difficile–associated diarrhea more than 2 months after completion of antimicrobial therapy.
  

• Canada Should Follow The U.S. Example On 'Orphan' Diseases
  (The Globe and Mail ) -- While there are scores of drugs for those with cardiovascular ailments, a bevy of antidepressants and antibiotics, and more anti-impotence treatments than the world will ever need, there is a paucity of medications for pulmonary hypertension (the rare disorder that claimed the life of Mr. Bell's grandson), cervical dystonia, hairy cell leukemia and so on.
  

• Fen-Phen Attorneys Could Face More Charges
  (Lexington Herald-Leader ) -- Federal prosecutors said in court Wednesday that they may seek additional charges against the two men, and defense lawyers told U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves that an October trial date will likely conflict with their schedules.
  

• Researchers Find Link Between Organ Transplants, Cancer
  (HealthDay News ) -- Anti-rejection drugs given after organ transplants may be the reason why 15 percent to 20 percent of individuals who receive such transplants have a higher risk of developing cancer within the next decade.
  

• Intravenous Prostacyclin Analogs For The Treatment Of PAH
  (Medscape ) -- What is the role of intravenous prostacyclin analogs in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension?
  

• Rare Disease Takes Half A Family
  (Orange County Register ) -- Orange County Register
  

• Doctors Hope Better Blood Thinners Are On The Horizon
  (redOrbit ) -- Two million patients currently use Coumadin, also known as warfarin, that causes an array of side effects and restrictions. The goal of the new drugs is to provide an alternative.
  

• Using Combination Therapies In The Treatment Of PAH: What's On The Horizon?
  (Medscape ) -- Now, there are 6 therapies approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with several more being actively investigated. As a result, significant improvements have been achieved in helping patients live better and live longer. However, significant morbidity and mortality continue to dominate despite treatment.
  

• New Drug For PAH In Vietnam
  (Thanh Nien Daily ) -- Professor of Medicine at University of Queensland and CEO of Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Keith McNeil, said, “The approval for Tracleer’s use in Vietnam is great news for PAH patients, as well as for the medical field in general, as PAH sufferers here will gain access to a therapy that can positively affect not only clinical progression, but can also result in better quality of life.”
  

• America's Best Hospitals: Respiratory Disorders
  (US News & World Report ) -- The U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals rankings cover 170 hospitals in 16 adult specialties. 50 children's hospitals are covered, using a new and enhanced methodology, in general pediatrics and 6 pediatric specialties. The unranked hospitals in this specialty are listed in alphabetical order after the ranked hospitals.

• Watermelon May Induce Effects Similar To Viagra's, Researchers Say
  (The Daily Texan ) -- Citrulline, an organic compound found in the melon, is converted through the digestive process into arginine, an amino acid that increases levels of nitric oxide and relaxes blood vessels.
  

• Ky. Fen-Phen Foreman: “There’s A Lot Of People That Should Have Been On Trial That Weren’t.”
  (Overlawyered ) -- After the judge declared a mistrial, the jury foreman, Donald Rainone of Erlanger, said jurors were stuck at 10-2 to acquit the defendants, and had been at that vote for much of their deliberations.
  

• Generamedix Wins Approval For Hypertension Drug
  (redOrbit ) -- GeneraMedix's Epoprostenol for Injection 1.5mg is indicated for the long-term intravenous treatment of primary pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary hypertension associated with the scleroderma spectrum of disease in NYHA Class III and Class IV patients who do not respond adequately to conventional therapy.
  

• A Girl Called Hope, A Dream Called Home
  (Times Union ) -- Hope became a textbook case study because doctors rarely see a child with such severe pulmonary hypertension live that long.
  

• Multitargeted Immune Therapy Scores Well For Severe Lupus Nephritis
  (MedPage Today ) -- In patients with severe combined lupus nephritis, multitargeted immune therapy led to more than a six-fold increase in the rate of complete remissions compared with intravenous cyclophosphamide, investigators here reported.
  

• New Fen-Phen Trial Date To Be Set
  (Kentucky Post ) -- U.S. District Judge William Bertlesman declared a mistrial Friday in the case of Lexington lawyers Shirley Cunningham and William Gallion.
  

• PAH And Cardiovascular Mortality In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis
  (Medscape) -- Does pulmonary arterial hypertension have an intermediary role in cardiovascular mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis?
  

• Diane Hebert, The First Quebecer To Get Double-Lung And Heart Transplant, Dies
  (The Canadian Press) -- In 1983, Diane Hebert's doctor told her she was likely to live only another two years because of primitive pulmonary hypertension, which plugs the arteries around the heart, deprives the body of oxygen and makes breathing increasingly difficult. A double-organ transplant was the only answer.
  

• Phase II Results for Low-Dose Oral Immune Tolerance Therapy (ARG201) In Systemic Scleroderma Published
  (Business Wire) -- The article entitled, "A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Oral Type I Collagen Treatment in Patients With Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis," reviews the results of the 168-patient, twelve center trial in which patients were administered a precise dose of highly purified type 1 collagen or placebo for 12 months with follow up at 15 months.
  

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