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3-4-10-2.mp3

Today's second installment is about the WHO definition of diabetes, and whether today's New England Journal of Medicine paper is enough to change it.

Hemoglobin A1c is certainly not a new test, but it has just been shown to predict more accurately the onset of diabetes complications such as heart disease or stroke, than current required testing such as a fasting glucose test.

http://men.webmd.com/prostate-enlargement-bph/news/20100302/generic-drug...

Today in the office,  someone came out of left field and asked me what I thought about the use of cinnamon for the control of their hypertension.  Keeping a somewhat straight face, I said I would look into it, but hadn't heard much about it.

This was a new one on me, an adult hematologist.  Evidently the bite of the Brown Recluse Spider is responsible for several cases of hemolytic anemia, researchers from St. Jude's Children's Hospital said this week.

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2-24-10.mp3

Stem cell therapy strikes again, this time in cardiology.  Researchers in Brazil directly injected bone marrow stem cells into the left ventricle, in patients with refractory angina or heart pain.  These patients had undergone surgery, angioplasty and medical treatment, but had ongoing chest pain. 

AAAS annual meeting carries the ongoing story of a British researcher on the verge of conquering peanut allergies.  Usually I don't carry stories this far out from clinical trial status, but the early results are encouraging.

Oh dear.  I laughed out loud with this one, in WSJ today.  Evidently there are enough peop»

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2-17-10try2.mp3

NEJM today has a paper on a strategy to use smaller platelet transfusions and lower transfusion thresholds.

The audio podcast discusses what platelets do in the circulation, some of the issues surrounding platelet transfusions, and some of the implications of the current NEJM paper. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/362/7/600

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2-17-10-1.mp3

I have been interested for many years on the question of whether adding antibiotics to chicken feed leads to more "superbug" resistant organisms in the hospital. There is science on both sides of the question.

Last week, we had a paper reporting that bacteria given sub-lethal doses of antibiotics don't die, but they mutate their DNA due to oxygen free radicals liberated by the antibiotics.