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NACDS, NCPA call Baucus bill "must-enact" legislation

ISMP is expanding its outreach by introducing a web site for consumers this summer.

Leiner Health Products has issued an allergy alert on undeclared allergens in Liquimax Multivitamin and has recalled the product.

Oversized morphine sulfate tablet leads to recall.

To better ward off blows by the FDA to compounding pharmacists, IACP has established a satellite office at NCPA's headquarters.

CMS has released the conditions of participation that hospices must fulfil in order to operate under Medicaire and Medicaid.

FDA gives once-yearly zoledronic acid injection expanded use.

Increased risk of cancer mortality found with Ethicon's diabetic foot ulcer cream.

Gut hormones play a key and often overlooked role in weight loss and weight regulation. Changes in weight are determined largely by the balance between energy intake and energy expenditure, but gut hormones can affect both sides of the energy equation.

The range of endothelial interventions for peripheral artery disease (PAD) is proliferating. Today's choices include traditional balloon angioplasty, stents, drug eluting stents and fabric-covered stents. Newer technologies allow clinicians to cut out occlusions, freeze them, scrape them, laser them and kill them.

Hyperglycemia is involved in the dysregulation of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase, leading to endothelial dysfunction and an increased risk of vasculopathy, said Markku Laakso, MD.

Pramlintide injection added to basal insulin at mealtime is similar to titrated rapid-acting insulin in achieving glycemic control but with a lower risk of hypoglycemia and no weight gain in patients with type 2 diabetes, said Matthew Riddle, MD, head, section of diabetes, division of endocrinology/diabetes/clinical nutrition, Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland.

Coronary artery calcium and abdominal aortic calcium both predicted future cardiovascular events in a Veterans Administration population with type 2 diabetes. The relationship between calcium scores and cardiovascular events was independent of standard cardiovascular risk factors, said Peter Reaven, MD.

Surrogate endpoints in clinical trials (ie, hemoglobin [Hb] A1c) on which drug approvals may be based only explain narrow aspects of complex conditions. For this reason, even when using a drug as labeled, there is always a level of uncertainty over outcomes with the drug, said Saul Malozowski, MD, PhD, MPH.

Clinicians should be wary of health claims made for trace elements such as iron or chromium. While there is no doubt that trace elements are needed for health, there is significant doubt about their utility in preventing or curing diabetes and other diseases, said Eliseo Guallar, MD, DrPH, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. There are many hypotheses about the beneficial effects of trace elements, but little high-quality data, little reliable population data, few useful biomarkers, relatively crude analytical methods and few mechanistic studies.

Pioglitazone prevented progression to type 2 diabetes in patients with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), reported Ralph DeFronzo, MD. The effect was marked?81% fewer patients assigned to pioglitazone compared with placebo converted from IGT to type 2 diabetes in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study.

Some pharmacists think CDC is doing a good job selecting the right strain for the flu vaccine, others don't think so.

Wal-Mart expands the number of discounted drugs it is offering in Colorado after a new pricing law is passed.

CMS recognizes the NCCN compendium as a source for determining whether a cancer drug or biologic should be covered.

A study from the Office of the Inspector General of the department of Health & Human Services finds problems for dual-eligible residents of nursing facilities with Medicare Part D.

For the third month in a row the pharmacy posted on the wall in the back of the prescription department the pharmacy's success rate. This month the pharmacy's success rate (91%) broke a new barrier. It was cause for celebration.

British women who have poorer glycemic control before and during pregnancy have poorer outcomes and less-healthy babies. That's the take home message from CEMACH, the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health, a year-long survey of pregnant women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes across the United Kingdom.

Atherosclerosis and its complications develop in stages. Each of each of these stages is affected by different metabolic abnormalities, said Scott Grundy, MD, PhD, during the annual Edwin Bierman lecture.

Current research suggests that pedal osteolysis, the loss of bone mineral density (BMD) in the foot, may be a useful biomarker for Charcot's arthropathy and other diabetic foot diseases.

An intense glucose-lowering strategy in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes was associated with an excess of mortality in the ACCORD (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) trial, the U.S. counterpart to the ADVANCE (Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron-MR Controlled Evaluation) study.

Several novel classes of agents designed to treat hyperglycemia are under investigation. These agents were the subjects of a symposium here. One such novel class is the sodium glucose co-transporter (SGLT) type 2 inhibitors, which reduce glucose levels by increasing kidney excretion of glucose. The kidney plays an important role in the handling of glucose, said Robert R. Henry, MD, professor of medicine and chief of VA endocrinology and metabolism at the University of California, San Diego. SGLT-2 is expressed almost exclusively in the kidney. About 90% of glucose reabsorption by the kidney is mediated by SGLT-2 under normal circumstances.

Translating weight loss research into clinical programs is not easy. Too many clinical protocols exist in isolation, according to Donald Williamson, PhD, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA. The key gap is extending methods that contribute to weight loss into programs that maintain weight loss.

The risk of fracture is probably only slightly increased in persons with type 2 diabetes, said Peter Vestergaard, MD, PhD, DrMedSc, from the Osteoporosis Clinic, Aarhus Amtssygehus, Denmark.

Real-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) can significantly improve glycemic control, but it will not help all patients. "Real-time CGM will add significantly to glucose management for some people, but not for all," said Irl Hirsch, MD, University of Washington, Seattle. "Human factors make all the difference between success and failure. Some patients will never figure it out. That?s why real-time control is so challenging.