Diabetes & Endocrinology News

• TCT 2021 Steroid Complications in GVHD Common, Boost Costs of Care Among 689 patients with a diagnosis of graft versus host disease following HSCT who received steroids, 97% had at least one steroid-related complication, according to a retrospective database analysis.
  Medscape Medical News, February 22, 2021
• Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Need Close Monitoring During Ramadan Fast Muslims with chronic kidney disease who wish to fast during Ramadan should undergo an evaluation to determine any needed medication changes and develop plans to monitor renal function and electrolytes while fasting, some clinicians advise.
  Reuters Health Information, February 19, 2021
• Hyperglycemia Tied to Cognitive Decline, Vascular Dementia Elevated HbA1c is associated with increased risk of vascular dementia, cognitive decline and structural brain changes, an analysis of data from the UK Biobank study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, February 19, 2021
• Endocrinologists Happiest of All Specialties, but Burnout Also High The annual lifestyle survey shows predictable declines in happiness corresponding to the COVID-19 pandemic, but endocrinologists still top the list.
  Medscape Medical News, February 22, 2021
• How to Spot a Fake N95 Counterfeit N95 airborne particle-filtering face masks are on the rise, but recognizing phonies can be easy using a few simple steps.
  Medscape Medical News, February 19, 2021
• Large Study Finds Trans Men on Testosterone at Risk for Blood Clots Transgender men who take testosterone are at risk of developing erythrocytosis and future thrombotic events, especially if they smoke and are overweight, finds large 20-year study.
  Medscape Medical News, February 19, 2021
• Medicare Beneficiaries With High Out-of-Pocket Costs May Reduce Insulin Adherence Patients with diabetes who face high out-of-pocket costs under Medicare Part D may buy or use less insulin than they're prescribed, according to a new study.
  Reuters Health Information, February 18, 2021
• Prediabetes Tied to Increased Stroke Risk With Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation Stroke risk in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation may be further increased by prediabetes, a new study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, February 17, 2021
• Obesity Pegged as Diabetes Cause in Almost Half of US Cases Data from two major US epidemiology studies, MESA and NHANES, provide new evidence that obesity is the attributable cause for about 40% of patients with incident diabetes.
  Medscape Medical News, February 18, 2021
• 1 in 5 Diabetes Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 Die in 28 Days Around a fifth of patients with diabetes hospitalized with COVID-19 infection will die within a month, although around half will be discharged, suggests an ongoing French study.
  Medscape Medical News, February 18, 2021
• Cancer Warning Labels on Alcohol: Calls for Congress to Act The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and seven other organizations are lobbying Congress to add a warning about cancer risk to all alcoholic beverages.
  Medscape Medical News, February 17, 2021
• Metformin for Diabetes Has No Effect on COVID-19 Infection, Death With propensity score matching and inclusion of nonhospitalized primary care patients, metformin use did not influence COVID-19 susceptibility or mortality in those with diabetes.
  Medscape Medical News, February 17, 2021
• Ivabradine Knocks Down Heart Rate, Symptoms in POTS The heart failure drug also may be helpful in treating similar symptoms in patients with long-hauler COVID-19, researchers say.
  Medscape Medical News, February 16, 2021
• Dialysis Patients Should Be Moved Up Vaccine Priority List Patients on dialysis are on par with long-term care residents in terms of risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 death, and should therefore be highest priority for vaccination, say nephrologists.
  Medscape Medical News, February 16, 2021
• Should Alcoholic Drinks Have Calorie-Content Labels? It doesn't make sense that alcoholic drink labels don't provide calorie and standard serving information, just as food products do, says one expert, commenting on a new review.
  Medscape Medical News, February 16, 2021
• Opioids Prescribed for Diabetic Neuropathy Pain, Against Advice Inappropriate first-line opioid use was found in more than 40% of patients, dropping over time but without a concurrent rise in use of recommended chronic pain medications.
  Medscape Medical News, February 15, 2021
• Aged 40+ With Diabetes Should Be COVID-19 Vaccine Priority Patients as young as 40 with type 2 diabetes have a markedly increased risk of dying from COVID-19, compared with those without diabetes, making a case for the former to be prioritized for vaccination.
  Medscape Medical News, February 15, 2021
• Health Coaches at Primary Care Clinics Helped Reduce Heart Risk Patients who received intensive lifestyle training in the primary care setting experienced improvement in several indicators of cardiometabolic health, results from a 2-year trial show.
  Medscape Medical News, February 12, 2021
• High Blood Pressure Likely to Be Causally Linked to Atrial Fibrillation A Mendelian-randomization study provides strong evidence that high blood pressure contributes to atrial fibrillation (AF), which means AF could be preventable, the researchers say.
  Reuters Health Information, February 11, 2021
• Steroids Can Be Safely Ditched in Low-Risk Kidney Transplants 'Going forward...[kidney] transplant centers using steroids should justify why they are using [them], given that there is no evidence of improved outcomes and steroids have adverse effects,' says an expert.
  Medscape Medical News, February 12, 2021