FDA Announces New Safety Controls for Long-Acting Beta Agonists, Medications Used to Treat Asthma – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that drugs in the class of long-acting beta agonists (LABAs) should never be used alone in the treatment of asthma in children or adults.
MRSA leads to worse outcomes, staggering expenses for surgical patients – Post surgical infections significantly increase the chance of hospital readmission and death and cost as much as $60,000 per patient, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers who conducted the largest study of its kind to date.
Report on H1N1 cases in California shows hospitalization can occur at all ages, with many severe – In contrast with some common perceptions regarding 2009 influenza A(H1N1) infections, an examination of cases in California indicates that hospitalization and death can occur at all ages. About 30 percent of hospitalized cases have been severe enough to require treatment in an intensive care unit.
Experts advise WHO on pandemic vaccine policies and strategies — Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 briefing note – The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization, which advises WHO on policies and strategies for vaccines and immunization, devoted a session of its 27?29 October meeting to pandemic influenza vaccines.
Bundling 2 low-cost heart drugs prevents heart attack and stroke in large, diverse population — Kaiser Permanente program averted 1,271 heart attacks and strokes, observational clinical study shows. – Low-cost drugs ? a cholesterol-lowering statin and a blood pressure-lowering drug ? as daily doses to 68,560 people with diabetes or heart disease for two years is estimated to have prevented 1,271 heart attacks and strokes.
Hello wearable kidney, goodbye dialysis machine — Wearable Artificial Kidney for dialysis patients. – Researchers are developing a Wearable Artificial Kidney for dialysis patients, reports an upcoming paper in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).
Treatment with antipsychotic drugs is associated with a significantly increased risk of hospitalization for hyperglycemia in old patients. – Older patients with diabetes who take antipsychotic medications appear to have an increased risk of hospitalization for hyperglycemia (elevated blood glucose level), especially soon after beginning treatment, revealed by researchers.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Approves Sanofi’s Multaq dronedarone to Treat Heart Rhythm Disorders – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Sanofi’s Multaq tablets (dronedarone) to help maintain normal heart rhythms in patients with a history of atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter (heart rhythm disorders or arrhythmia).
Large, long-term study shows Avandia has no increased overall cardiovascular risk compared to other commonly used diabetes medicines – Clinical trial results presented at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting show that overall rates of cardiovascular hospitalization and cardiovascular death are similar in patients taking Avandia (rosiglitazone) compared to those receiving metformin and sulfonylurea.
Rolofylline Did Not Demonstrate Efficacy for Acute Heart Failure in Clinical Trial – Merck’s experimental heart failure drug rolofylline failed to meet the goals in a clinical trial, failing to improve patients. Merck won’t seek approval this year for this heart failure drug rolofylline after preliminary results.
