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Healthcare online Keeping you up-to-date
VOL.  11     ISSUE:  7    July 2013 Medical Services Department

SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Features

EDITORIAL TEAM

OMAR AKRAMUR RAB

MBBS, FCGP, FIAGP,

P G Dip. Business Management

MAHFUZUR RAHMAN

 MBBS, MBA

 

EDITORIAL

Dear Doctor:

Hope you are enjoying our healthcare bulletin 'e-SQUARE' !

Our current issue focused on some interesting features like

"Diabetes Risk !", "Less Side Effects !", "Race & Cancer !", "Insulin & Breast Milk !", "New Liver !", "HIV & Hot Flashes !".

In our regular feature, we have some new products information of SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd. as well.

Please send us your feedback !

Click on to reply mode.

Yours sincerely,

 

Editorial Team

Reply Mode      : e-square@squaregroup.com

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of its editor or SQUARE PHARMACEUTICALS LTD.

 Diabetes Risk !

Solid Food Timing For Babies Tied To Diabetes Risk

Infants who receive their first solid food either early or late -- before the age of 4 months or at 6 months or older -- are at increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes, new research suggests. Type 1 diabetes is on the rise worldwide, with some of the fastest increases among children younger than 5 years of age. Infants' diets are one major area of research into the origins of the disease, according to the background information in the study appearing online July 8 in JAMA Pediatrics. The study looked at infants in the Denver area who had first-degree relatives with type 1 diabetes. Infants who were given solid food for the first time either earlier or later than other infants were at increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes. Early exposure to fruit and late exposure to rice or oats were associated with an increased risk, while breast-feeding when wheat or barley were introduced appeared to be associated with a reduced risk, according to a journal news release. Although the study found an association between the age of introduction of solid foods and development of type 1 diabetes in higher-risk children, it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship. "In summary, there appears to be a safe window in which to introduce solid foods between 4 and 5 months of age; solid foods should be introduced while continuing to breast-feed to minimize type 1 diabetes risk in genetically susceptible children. These findings should be replicated in a larger study for confirmation," the authors concluded.

SOURCE: HealthDay News, July 2013

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 Less Side Effects !

Statin Use Linked To Few Side Effects

Statins - the popular class of cholesterol-lowering drugs used widely to prevent recurrent heart disease or stroke as well as risk for having a first cardiac or stroke event — appear to cause few side effects, according to new research. Researchers conducted the largest meta-analysis on statin side effects to date, reviewing data from 135 previous drug studies to evaluate the safety of the seven statins on the market. They concluded “as a class, adverse events associated with statin therapy are not common.” Researchers noted that simvastatin and pravastatin were found to have the best safety profile in the class. This is particularly true when patients were prescribed low to moderate doses of those statins, said the study’s lead author. Researchers also noted a 9 percent increased risk of diabetes among statin users. But according to a previous landmark study, 250 patients need to be treated with a statin for one case of diabetes to be diagnosed. The proven ability of statins to significantly cut the rate of death and hospitalization in patients who have heart disease outweighs the “small increase in diabetes risk,”  said the lead author. Researchers reviewed trials published between 1985 and early 2013, which included almost 250,000 patients. On average, the trials lasted a bit longer than a year. Some compared one statin to another, while others compared a statin to an inactive placebo, which is often called a sugar pill or dummy pill. The study also found that statins were not linked to an increase in cancer risk. However, the drugs were associated with a typically reversible increase in liver enzymes, which the author said still resulted in a very low rate of actual liver toxicity in statin patients. “Although the benefits of statins clearly outweigh risks at the population level, individualizing such benefits and risks is more difficult,” he said. “This brings into sharp focus the importance of identifying the individuals who stand to benefit the most from statin therapy. Although the risk of developing diabetes is low, what this risk would amount to over time is simply not known based on the existing evidence,” the author added. 

SOURCE: American Heart Association, July 2013

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 Race & Cancer !

                               Even With Equal Care, Racial Disparity Persists In Blood Cancer, Study Finds

Black Americans with blood cancer do not live as long as white patients with the disease, a new study finds, even when they receive equal levels of care. Researchers looked at 84 black patients and more than 1,500 non-black patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which is a rare disease in blacks. All patients received the same treatments. The time from diagnosis to referral for treatment was shorter for blacks than whites, but blacks were more likely to have more advanced CLL at the time of referral. Blacks responded as well as whites to first-line treatment, but their cancer progressed more rapidly, and their survival time was shorter. This shorter survival time among blacks persisted even after the researchers grouped patients according to factors related to the severity of their disease, according to the study. The findings indicate that biological factors may account for racial differences in survival among patients with CLL, the researchers said. For reasons that are unclear, minorities tend to have worse cancer outcomes than whites. In black patients, poverty and limited access to high-quality care often play a role, but some experts believe that certain cancers can be more aggressive in minority patients.

SOURCE: HealthDay News, July 2013

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 Insulin & Breast Milk !

Breast Milk Supply May Be Linked To Insulin Production: Study

Insulin plays an important role in making breast milk, according to a new study that may help explain why many mothers have difficulty producing enough milk to nurse their baby. The researchers describe how milk-producing glands become highly sensitive to insulin during lactation and how specific genes in the glands are switched on during lactation. RNA sequencing technology revealed "in exquisite detail" the blueprint for milk production in the mammary glands, said study author. "This new study shows a dramatic switching on of the insulin receptor and its downstream signals during the breast's transition to a biofactory that manufactures massive amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates for nourishing the newborn baby," said the author. In previous research, the author found that new mothers with characteristics linked to poor glucose metabolism -- such as being overweight, older or having a large baby -- take longer to begin producing milk. This suggested that insulin was a factor in milk production. "Considering that 20 percent of women between 20 and 44 are prediabetic, it's conceivable that up to 20 percent of new mothers in the United States are at risk for low milk supply due to insulin dysregulation," she added. The author and her colleagues are planning a study to determine if a drug used to control blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes boosts insulin action in mammary glands and improves milk supply. "The ideal approach is a preventive one," she said. "Modifications in diet and exercise are more powerful than any drug. After this clinical trial, they hope to study those interventions." 

SOURCE: HealthDay News, July 2013

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 New Liver !

Scientists Create Human Liver From Stem Cells

Scientists have for the first time created a functional human liver from stem cells derived from skin and blood and say their success points to a future where much-needed livers and other transplant organs could be made in a laboratory. While it may take another 10 years before lab-grown livers could be used to treat patients, the Japanese scientists say they now have important proof of concept that paves the way for more ambitious organ-growing experiments. Researchers around the world have been studying stem cells from various sources for more than a decade, hoping to capitalize on their ability to transform into a wide variety of other kinds of cell to treat a range of health conditions. There are two main forms of stem cells - embryonic stem cells, which are harvested from embryos, and reprogrammed "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS cells), often taken from skin or blood. Countries across the world have a critical shortage of donor organs for treating patients with liver, kidney, heart and other organ failure. Scientists are keenly aware of the need to find other ways of obtaining organs for transplant. The Japanese team, based at the Okohama City University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, used iPS cells to make three different cell types that would normally combine in the natural formation of a human liver in a developing embryo - hepatic endoderm cells, mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial cells - and mixed them together to see if they would grow. They found the cells did grow and began to form three-dimensional structures called "liver buds" - a collection of liver cells with the potential to develop into a full organ. When they transplanted them into mice, the researchers found the human liver buds matured, the human blood vessels connected to the mouse host's blood vessels and they began to perform many of the functions of mature human liver cells. "To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the generation of a functional human organ from pluripotent stem cells," the researchers said. The suggestion from this new study is that mice transplanted with human iPS cell-liver buds might be used to test new drugs to see how the human liver would cope with them and whether they might have side-effects such as liver toxicity.

SOURCE: Reuters Health, July 2013

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 HIV & Hot Flashes !

Women With HIV May Suffer More From Hot Flashes

As women infected with HIV live longer, new evidence is suggesting that menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes may affect them worse than women who don't carry the virus. "Perimenopausal HIV-infected women experience greater hot flash severity and greater hot flash-related interference with daily activities and quality of life," compared to non-infected women going through menopause, researchers report. Excessive menopausal symptoms might even compromise the health of HIV-positive women, including their ability to adhere to drug therapy and abstain from drugs and alcohol, the team said. Lead author and her coleagues urged doctors who care for middle-aged HIV-infected women to evaluate their hot flashes and offer effective treatment. For the study, the researchers surveyed 33 HIV-infected women, aged 45-48, with irregular menstrual cycles (perimenopause) and compared their responses with those of perimenopausal women without HIV. The women with HIV typically experienced moderate hot flashes while the women without HIV mild hot flashes. The HIV-infected women also had more sleep problems, more depressed moods, irritability and anxiety. Hot flashes also interfered more with HIV-infected women's work, social and leisure activities, concentration, relationships with others, sexuality, enjoyment of life and overall quality of life. In fact, the harmful effect of hot flashes among women with HIV was greater than what has been reported for breast cancer survivors, according to the study. It's not clear why hot flashes are worse in HIV-infected women and further research is needed to learn the answers, the study authors said.

SOURCE: Reuters Health, July 2013

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New Products of SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

  Product Norvis®
  Generic Name Tiemonium Methylsulphateazole
  Strength 10 mg/5ml
  Dosage form Syrup
  Therapeutic Category Antispasmodic
  Product Clotinex®  80
Generic Name Enoxaparin Sodium
Strength 80 mg
Dosage form Prefilled Syringe Injection
Therapeutic Category Anticoagulant
  Product Lumast®
  Generic Name Roflumilast
  Strength 500 mcg
  Dosage form Tablet
  Therapeutic Category Antiasthma

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