Benefits of Weight Loss For Overweight People With Type 2 – Including Increased Sex

written by Michael O’Leary

No one is saying dieting will double your pleasure and double your fun. But a new study shows that regardless of which type of two diets used, obese men with type 2 diabetes who lost weight gained both an increase in sexual desire and sexual function.

In addition the small study showed multiple benefits to blood glucose and cardiovascular health as a result of a weight loss of about 10 percent in men who started the study with a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30 and a waist over 40 inches (102 cm). The study was published online Aug. 5, 2011 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. (Link to published site)

Researchers report strides in developing endoscopic OCT

Optical coherence tomography (OCT)
allows 3-D imaging of sub-
surface features in microscopic 
detail. (Images courtesy of MIT)

Researchers report an important advance in developing an ultra-high speed, optical coherence tomography (OCT) system that one day may allow doctors to see just below the surface of some tissues with microscopic detail. The technology is aimed at detecting microscopic pre-cancerous changes in the esophagus or colon.

Led by Dr. James Fujimoto, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the researchers published details of the advance in image capture speed and device development in the August issue of the journal Biomedical Optics Express.

"Ultrahigh-speed imaging is important because it enables the acquisition of large three-dimensional volumetric data sets with micron-scale resolution," Fujimoto said in a prepared statement. (Link to published site.)

Type 2 diabetes management? There’s an app for that

August 4th, 2011 by Ryan Luce No Comments

written by Michael O’Leary

Soon people with type 2 diabetes may be entering their blood glucose readings into their cell phones, but it won’t be just another cell phone app. The new generation mobile health tools will record the data for your doctors and link to online software that will track your status and text you with messages to help manage your diabetes.

People using the system, developed by WellDoc, in a clinical trial achieved an average 1.9 percent decline in their A1C, which was significantly lower than the 0.7 percent decline in the usual care group. (Link to published site)

FDA Panel Turns Down Dapagliflozin

August 3, 2011 by Ryan Luce No Comments

written by Michael O’Leary

A FDA panel dealt a setback to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and AstraZeneca PLC last week voting 9-6 not to recommend approval dapagliflozin for treatment of type 2 diabetes. The blow came as a bit of a surprise to experts who had expected the panel to approve the drug with some post marketing requirements due to some adverse complications. (Link to published site)

Eating lots of fiber lowers breast cancer risk

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Consuming high amounts of high-fiber
foods, such as legumes, may reduce
breast cancer risk. (Photo courtesy
U.S. Department of Agriculture) 

Women who participated in previous studies of diet and breast cancer and ate the most fiber had a 11 percent lower chance of developing breast cancer. That's the conclusion of a re-analysis of the data pooled from the studies, according to a Reuters report.
Chinese researchers led by Jia-Yi Dong of Soochow University in Suzhou, conducted the meta-analysis, which is a study that combines the data from previously conducted studies. (Link to published site)

CAD software serves as a "second
read" for screening mammography,
marking image patterns for the
radiologist to review. (Image
courtesy of Hologic, Inc.)

Real World Study Questions Effectiveness of CAD  Mammography

Computer-aided detection tools add to the cost of screening mammography for breast cancer but add little in terms of finding undetected harmful tumors, while increasing the number of false positives, a new study shows.

In what may be the largest study of real-world use of CAD mammography, researchers with the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium led by Dr. Joshua Fenton analyzed 1.6 million mammograms from 680,000 women in seven states.  Their study was published online today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. (Link to published site)

Anomalous right coronary artery
in a 17-year-old patient using high
pitch CT scan mode. (Image
courtesy of Dr. Kelly Han,
Minneapolis Heart Institu

New Cardiac CT Technique Reduces Radiation Sevenfold in Children
DENVER – July 17, 2011 – Beta blockade combined with newer multi-detector CT angiography (MDCTA) reduced radiation exposure sevenfold compared to older scanners a new study shows. The new method may be the safest for coronary imaging for certain pediatric patients.

In a retrospective study of all coronary CTAs performed on patients less than 18 years of age at Minneapolis Heart Institute®, researchers found that not only did newer CTA techniques use lower doses of radiation than early CTA, the heart rate reduction using beta blockers allowed radiation doses significantly lower than conventional cardiac catheterization. (Link to published site)