Diabetes

WAKE FOREST, N.C. — A common test may help predict early death among diabetes patients, a new study found.

According to research lead by Donald Bowden, director of the Center for Diabetes Research at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the examination of a patient's coronary artery calcium score — which measures the amount of calcified plaque buildup in blood vessels — through a computed tomography scan, or CT scan, could indicate the patient's risk of coronary heart disease, which can lead to premature death.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — Many people who provide care and support to loved ones said they are more likely to be nonadherent to their own personal medication regimen than to neglect providing medications to those they are caring for, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard University, Brigham and Women's Hospital and CVS Caremark. Given this, there's a significant opportunity for pharmacists and doctors to identify and work with caregivers to improve medication adherence and chronic disease management.

CHICAGO — Johns Hopkins Medicine and Walgreens on Wednesday announced an agreement between the two companies that will promote collaboration on population-based research.

Also part of the agreement, Johns Hopkins and Walgreens will jointly review and develop protocols to improve outcomes of patients with chronic diseases and explore the development of new models for improving care for individuals.

NEW YORK — Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found that patients with diabetes are at higher risk of contracting tuberculosis, a deadly bacterial disease, than nondiabetics.

The study investigators discovered among 233 patients that were diagnosed with TB between March 2006 and March 2008 — which included 61 patients in southern Texas and 172 in northeastern Mexico — 25% of TB cases were attributed to the presence of diabetes, while 6% of TB cases were caused by HIV.

NEW YORK — Introducing a gluten-free diet to an infant may not reduce its risk of developing Type 1 diabetes, according to a new study published in Diabetes Care.

German researchers analyzed data pooled from 150 infants with a first-degree family history of Type 1 diabetes and randomly exposed them to gluten at the age of 6 months (control group) or 12 months (late-exposure group). The infants then were followed until 3 years of age (and annually thereafter for safety purposes).

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark outlined on Tuesday at a consumer health engagement conference the results of a personalized consumer communications program designed to encourage patients to take their medications as doctors direct.

Early results of the program showed increases in consumers signing up for automatic prescription refills and more readily substituting branded medications for generic medicines to lower costs.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Women that experience body mass index gains between their first and second pregnancies are at an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes in the second pregnancy, according to a Kaiser Permanente study.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Diabetes Association announced that it will fund research that will examine the effectiveness of technology-based diabetes management devices.

The studies, funded by the American Diabetes Association/Medtronic Technology in Diabetes Fellowship, will utilize Medtronic's CareLink database — a database of anonymous continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump-derived data — to assess, evaluate and correlate the application of this and similar technologies used by patients with insulin-treated diabetes.