Diabetes: know your numbers Vancouver Courier, Canada - Nov 28, 2008 In my last column, I reviewed the Canadian Diabetes Association's current recommendations for identifying those at high vascular risk. ...
Diabetic seniors can take steps to keep mobility Scarlet Scuttlebutt, NJ - Nov 24, 2008 Leg and foot blood vessels can narrow and harden because of diabetes. Help fight poor circulation by keeping blood pressure and cholesterol under control. ...
Glucose Lowering to Control Macrovascular Disease in Type 2 Diabetes Journal of American Medical Association (subscription), IL - Nov 4, 2008 In the Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron-MR Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE) trial, 4 11 140 patients with type 2 diabetes were ...
New Test, VENDYS(R), Helps Detect Silent Heart Disease Medical News Today (press release), UK - Nov 10, 2008 Researchers hope that VENDYS, by measuring a dynamic marker of vascular disease, can fill the gap in existing cardiovascular risk assessment and complement ...
MEDRAD Builds on Success of P3T Cardiac CT Injection Software MarketWatch - Nov 24, 2008 For diagnostic imaging, MEDRAD's product offerings include a comprehensive line of vascular injection systems, magnetic resonance (MR) surface coils and ...
Industry eyes Beaumont Hospitals' loss-leader $70 heart test MLive.com, MI - Jul 31, 2008 Advertising the price - $70 for heart and vascular diagnostic tests - in radio ads is unusual for hospitals, said Michael Bernacchi, marketing professor at ...
Ankle Impairments Seen in Diabetics Even Without Neuropathy Medscape (subscription) - Aug 1, 2008 Included were patients aged younger than 70 years with diabetes for at least 7 years and no history of peripheral vascular, neurologic, musculoskeletal, ...
Statins May Protect Against Memory Loss Science Daily (press release) - Jul 28, 2008 The longitudinal study was originally funded in 1997 to look at metabolic and vascular conditions like hypertension and diabetes and their effect on the ...
Birth weight 'sets future health' BBC News, UK - Jul 23, 2008 Eight-year-olds who were smaller at birth were more likely to have "vascular resistance", reported the European Heart Journal. ...
Cholesterol test could save your life, doctors say Villages Daily Sun, FL - Jul 28, 2008 The PLAC Test measures the level of an enzyme highly specific to vascular inflammation and implicated in the formation of rupture-prone plaque. ...
Low childhood iq tied to dementia in old age The Punch, Nigeria - Jul 12, 2008 Almost 19 percent were diagnosed with vascular dementia, while close to 5 percent were a mix of the two. Childhood test results among the dementia patients ...
Fetuin-A Linked With Incident Diabetes Medscape (subscription) - Jul 8, 2008 However, fetuin-A also has an inverse relationship with vascular calcification in animals and humans, meaning that any potential treatment that reduces ...
Endothelial Function Testing as a Biomarker of Vascular Disease - S Verma, MR Buchanan, TJ Anderson - Circulation, 2003 - Am Heart Assoc ... Patients at high risk (those with diabetes, other vascular disease, or ... A positive test in a subject at low to moderate risk would identify an individual ...
ABC of arterial and venous disease: Vascular complications of diabetes - R Donnelly, AM Emslie-Smith, ID Gardner, AD Morris - BMJ: British Medical Journal, 2000 - pubmedcentral.nih.gov ... Peripheral vascular disease. Atheromatous disease in the legs, as in the ... less reliable
as a screening test in patients with diabetes and intermittent ...
Peripheral vascular disease and diabetes - PJ Palumbo, LJ Melton - Diabetes in America, 1995 - books.google.com ... arterial disease was assessed by clinical criteria and non- invasive testing, including
post ... LEAD 3'11" 13'20'2? In patients with diabetes, vascular dis -ease ...
Source: Google Scholar
Noninvasive test assesses diabetes vascular damage
Last Updated: 2006-12-06 15:58:54 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A technique called skin autofluorescence may be a new noninvasive way to detect vascular damage in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a new report.
Skin autofluorescence can measure tissue for the accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which accumulate as a result of high levels of blood sugar. AGE has a deleterious effect on the walls of small and large blood vessels, leading to diabetes-related micro- and macrovascular disease.Therefore, skin autofluorescence can be a "tool that is able to give a rapid impression of the risk for diabetes complications," the authors explain in the current issue of Diabetes Care. Dr. Helen L. Lutgers from University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, and colleagues investigated the association between skin autofluorescence and micro- and macrovascular complications in 973 patients with type 2 diabetes.
The autofluorescence test was conducted by illuminating the skin of the patients' forearm with an 8 W blacklight and measuring the levels of light emitted.
Article continues below and (thank you)
The average skin autofluorescence was 33 percent higher among type 2 diabetics than among controls, the investigators report.
Patients with both micro- and macrovascular complications had higher average skin autofluorescence than did patients without complications and patients with only microvascular complications. Patients with macrovascular complications also had higher average skin autofluorescence than did patients without complications, the researchers note.
Increased skin autofluorescence was also associated with increased age, female sex, current tobacco use, increased diabetes duration, evidence of kidney disease and decreased HDL cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol), the report indicates.
"In this study, we showed that increased levels of skin autofluorescence (were) related to the extent of diabetes-related complications," the authors conclude.
"In a 4-year follow-up study," they add, "the progression of micro- and macrovascular complications, as well as mortality, is now (being) evaluated in the current study group" to see if skin autofluorescence can predict the development or progression of diabetes complications.
Brain scans could help predict schizophrenia, research suggests.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans have revealed key changes in the brain's grey matter in a small group before they developed symptoms. The finding suggests tracking these changes over time, combined with traditional assessments, could help doctors to predict illness.
The research, published in BioMed Central Medicine, was carried out by the University of Edinburgh.
For ten years, scientists followed 200 young people who were at a high risk of developing schizophrenia because two or more members of their family had already been diagnosed with the illness.
They analysed MRI scans of 65 of the 200 young people, taken on average 18 months apart.
The researchers looked specifically for changes in grey matter - brain tissue made principally of neurones which transmit messages and help to store memories.
Eight of the 65 went on to develop schizophrenia on average 2.3 years after their first scan.
The MRI scans of each of these eight individuals revealed that they had changes in grey matter that happened before they became unwell.
Specifically, they showed a reduction in grey matter in a part of their brain called the inferior temporal gyrus, which is linked to the processing of anxiety.
Prevention hope
People who develop schizophrenia are known often to exhibit signs of raised anxiety levels up to two years before the onset of full psychosis.
As members of a high risk group, each person in the study had approximately a 13% risk of developing schizophrenia.
However, the specific changes to the grey matter pinpointed by the researchers raised the risk to 60%.
Lead researcher Dr Dominic Job said: ''Although there are no preventative treatments for the illness, an accurate predictive test could help researchers to assess possibilities for prevention in the future.
"Current methods are good for predicting who won't develop schizophrenia but not who will.
"By combining brain imaging with traditional clinical assessments it might be possible to detect people who are at highest risk of the illness early."
However, Dr Job said a larger scale study was needed to confirm the results.
More work
The Edinburgh group, who are funded by the Medical Research Council, has already used sophisticated scans to link a specific gene to psychotic symptoms.
Jo Loughran, of the schizophrenia charity Rethink, said: "Schizophrenia is notoriously difficult to diagnose; therefore Rethink welcomes any new research or progress into understanding the causes of schizophrenia.
"However, it would need to be independently replicated before it would make a difference to the thousands of people living with severe mental illness in the UK.
"In the meantime, reaching people early with the right care and treatment is the best way of recovering a meaningful and fulfilling life."
Comment by Elizabeth G. Nabel M.D.