The FDA and Novartis have informed health care professionals and patients about a link between delayed-release mycophenolic acid (Myfortic, Novartis) and an increased risk of pregnancy loss and congenital malformations during pregnancy. This medication is indicated for preventing organ rejection in patients receiving allogeneic renal transplants.
The FDA has informed health care professionals and consumers that the Cochlear Implant device used by deaf and hearing-impaired patients has been associated with an increased risk of bacterial meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Children with these implants that have a positioner component are considered to be at a greater risk.
Within the past year, two children, 9 and 11 years of age, died as a result of meningitis. Neither child had received a full round of vaccinations, and the cause of death was attributed to this omission in one of the children.
(Source: FDA, October 10, 2007.)
Patients with chronic ulcerative colitis (UC) have a less-than-ideal choice: long-term steroid therapy or immunosuppressant drugs. But a new option might give them a better chance. The treatment is based on the concept of UC being caused by a dysfunction in the mucosal barrier in the colon, which in turn results from a lack of mucoprotective phos-phatidylcholine.
In a study at University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany, 60 patients with chronic steroid-refractory UC and high clinical and endoscopic disease activity scores were assigned to receive phosphatidylcholine or cellulose placebo four times daily for 12 weeks.
A new model for calculating invasive breast cancer drug risk (the CARE model) gives improved estimates of the number of breast cancers that might develop in African-American women 50 to 79 years of age. An earlier model had been based primarily on data in Caucasian women.
Siemens Medical Solutions has completed its first installation of a mobile digital mammography system in the U.S. The Mammomat Novation DR is part of the Nevada Cancer Institute’s new Hope Coach, a mobile digital mammography van serving the Las Vegas area. The Hope Coach was launched on October 1 to mark the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Two common classes of blood pressure medications—angiotensin-conver ting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers—might be equally effective in controlling blood pressure.
In a study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), ACE-inhibitors were slightly more likely than ARBs to cause a harmless but persistent dry cough. More research is needed to learn how the two types of agents differ in their longer-term benefits and risks and how they differ in decreasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, or death.
GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes medication rosiglitazone (buy Avandia) will now carry a strong boxed warning that the drug might cause heart attacks. The company plans to design a trial to compare the drug with Takeda’s pioglitazone (Actos) to see whether the risk is unique to Avandia. Avandia and Actos already carry warnings about the risk of heart failure.
