Medical Bulletin 15/October/2022

Glitazones linked to 22% reduced dementia risk: Study

Use of an older class of type 2 diabetes drugs called glitazones, also known as thiazolidinediones or TZDs for short, is linked to a 22% reduced risk of dementia, reveals a long term study published in the open access journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care.

Because type 2 diabetes and dementia share some of the same physiological patterns, researchers have started to look at whether diabetes drugs might also help stave off or treat dementia. But to date, the findings have been inconsistent.

For the study the researchers compared dementia risk in older people with type 2 diabetes and treated with either a sulfonylurea or a thiazolidinedione (TZD) with those treated with metformin alone. They drew on the electronic health records of 559,106 people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes from the national Veteran Affairs (VA) Health System, spanning the period from January 2000 to December 2019.

Reference:

Dr Jin J Zhou et al,Use of oral diabetes medications and the risk of incident dementia in US veterans aged ≥60 years with type 2 diabetes doi 10.1136/bmjdrc-2022-002894 Journal: BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care

Extreme heat exposure may trigger kidney disease flare ups

Researchers linked meteorological history in New York State with data from over 1.1 million emergency room visits during 2005-2013 and found higher emergency room visits for kidney related problems such as acute kidney injury, kidney stones, and urinary tract infections during days with extreme heat exposure.

Given the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat exposure due to climate change and the growing prevalence of kidney disease worldwide, researchers examined their association with one another. They examined the association between extreme heat exposure and kidney disease-related emergency department (ED) visits based on seasons and disease subtypes in New York state.

Reference:

Associations Between Ambient Extreme Heat Exposure and Emergency Department Visits Related to Kidney Disease AUTHORS: Yanji Qu, MD, Wangjian Zhang, MD, Asi-Yahola M. Boutelle, MS, Ian Ryan, PhD, Xinlei Deng, PhD, Xiaoqing Liu, MD, and Shao Lin, MD DOI:https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2022.09.005

Two antiseptics prevent infections equally well after fracture surgery

The study leaders from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and McMaster University concluded that orthopedic surgeons could select either of the two solutions -- aqueous 10% povidone-iodine or aqueous 4% chlorhexidine gluconate – for infection prevention, based on a recent study.

The study, called Aqueous-PREP, was published in The Lancet and presented at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association meeting in Tampa, FL. Study participants were enrolled from a total of 14 hospitals, including the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), as well as other facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Spain. comparative effectiveness studies in the surgical field."

Reference:

Aqueous skin antisepsis before surgical fixation of open fractures (Aqueous-PREP): a multiple-period, cluster-randomised, crossover trial, The Lancet DOI

10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01652-X