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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

The FDA has approved revised boxed warnings and safety-related product labeling changes for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), which treat certain types of anemia. ESAs are a bio-engineered version of a protein made in the kidneys that stimulates bone marrow to produce more red blood cells.

A sampling of the new statements addresses the following:

Read the rest of this entry »

Rosuvastatin calcium (Crestor, Astra-Zeneca) has been approved as an adjunct to diet to delay the progression of atherosclerosis in patients with elevated cholesterol levels.

In the Measuring Effects on intima media Thickness: an Evaluation Of Rosu-vastatin (METEOR) study, researchers evaluated the effects of this drug on plaque build-up in the arteries. The new label conforms to the FDA’s revised format designed to draw physicians’ attention to important drug information in an effort to reduce errors.

Read the rest of this entry »