Morning MEDtalks with Dr K K Aggarwal

New Delhi, July 29, 2018 :

Around the globe

• Patients with well-controlled type 2 diabetes and excess weight had similar reductions in HbA1c after a year of intermittent fasting — fasting 2 days/week and eating normally 5 days/week — versus a consistent low-calorie diet. Patients in the intermittent fasting group also showed a trend toward greater weight loss, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Intermittent energy restriction is an effective alternative diet strategy for the reduction of HbA1c level comparable to continuous energy restriction in patients with type 2 diabetes, and it may be superior to continuous energy restriction for weight reduction (July 20 in JAMA Network Open).
• A high-sensitivity blood test appears to accurately identify the need for computed tomography (CT) scan in patients with suspected traumatic brain injury (TBI). Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) are 2 biomarker proteins that are released into the bloodstream after TBI. In more than 96% of patients, a blood test combining both of these biomarkers accurately predicted the absence of acute intracranial injury, as confirmed by CT scan (July 24 in Lancet Neurology).
• The use of adrenaline, during an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) offered a slight improvement in survival to 30 days but this was offset by worse neurological function in the double-blind PARAMEDIC 2 trial.
• Self-treatment of acute SVT with a nasal spray containing a short-acting calcium-channel blocker etripamil is likely to be possible with a high rate of conversion to sinus rhythm, suggests a phase 2 study. (NODE-1, Journal of the American College of Cardiology).
• Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome that experts believe may be caused by a malfunctioning nervous system. Researchers using MRI to examine the brains of people with fibromyalgia have found abnormalities in the part of the brain that processes pain signals from the body. It appears that this part of the brain is essentially boosting the intensity of normal pain signals, potentially causing the body to feel pain without a physical cause.