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Healthcare online Keeping you up-to-date
VOL.  13     ISSUE: 8  August  2015 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,

Welcome to 'e-SQUARE'.

Our current issue focused on some interesting features like -
"Antibiotics Alert !", "Tired Surgeon !", "Joint Pain !", "Psoriasis Alert !",  "Shorter Women Risk !", "New Drug !".

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

We will appreciate 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.
 Antibiotics Alert !

Antibiotics Linked To Type 2 Diabetes Risk

Taking antibiotics might increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research suggests. Danish researchers found that people with type 2 diabetes tended to take more antibiotics in the years leading up to their diagnosis than Danes without the condition. "Patients with type 2 diabetes are overexposed to antibiotics compared with matched control persons without diabetes," study researcher said. "The overexposure is seen after, as well as 15 years, before the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes," he added. Although the researchers uncovered an association between antibiotic use and type 2 diabetes, it's important to note they did not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship. For the study, the scientists tallied antibiotic prescriptions filled by more than 170,000 Danes with type 2 diabetes and about 1.3 million other adults between 1995 and 2012. The men and women were identified using records from national health registries. Individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes filled an average of 0.8 antibiotic prescriptions annually, compared to 0.5 a year among those who didn't develop diabetes. The more prescriptions, the more likely those people were to have type 2 diabetes, the researchers found. Those who took an antibiotic, regardless of the type, were 50 percent more likely to get a diabetes diagnosis if they had filled five or more prescriptions compared to those who filled none or one, he said. Narrow-spectrum antibiotics such as penicillin V conferred a slightly higher risk than broad-spectrum antibiotics. What drives the higher risk for diabetes isn't clear, researcher said. It's possible that the condition develops over time, increasing the risk of infection -- and need for antibiotics -- before an actual diabetes diagnosis, he said. Or, perhaps repeated infections somehow increase diabetes risk, or exposure to antibiotics boosts the odds. Research in animals has found that antibiotics may change the gut bacteria and affect sugar and fat metabolism, he added. "Also, it has been suggested that certain gut bacteria may contribute to the impaired ability to metabolize sugar seen in people with diabetes," he said. 
SOURCE: HealthDay News, August 2015

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 Tired Surgeon !

A Tired Surgeon Still A Good Surgeon, Study Finds

Don't panic if doctor worked into the wee hours of the night before he operates on patient, new research suggests. The risk of death, hospital readmission or complications following surgery was no more likely if the surgeon pulled a midnight shift before a daytime operation, the Canadian study showed. "I believe what we are seeing in our study reflects self-regulation -- that surgeons plan around their schedules based on their individual ability to tolerate sleep deprivation," senior study author said. "Given our findings, they seem to be doing a good job of it." Research team looked at results for almost 39,000 patients undergoing one of 12 daytime surgeries, including gallbladder removal and hysterectomy. For the analysis, the study authors paired patients who'd had the same surgeon perform the same procedure. In each pair, one patient got the surgeon after a night shift and the other got the same doctor fresh off of at least seven hours of not treating patients. In the end, the comparison included more than 1,400 surgeons and looked at how their patients fared 30 days after their operation. It turned out that outcomes didn't differ between the patients based on whether or not their surgeons had worked the midnight shift before the day of surgery. "Taking away the ability for physicians to self-regulate the work they do the day after being on call would really have the potential to cause harm," she said. "Sleep deprivation affects us all, and some people deal with it poorly and some deal with it well, and only the individual physician can really judge this." This study shows that the surgeons seem to be doing "a pretty good job of judging for themselves and modifying their practice accordingly" she added. Study author said that the Sleep Research Society has endorsed model legislation to require doctors who have been awake for 22 of the previous 24 hours to inform their patients about their sleep deprivation and obtain patient consent to move forward with procedures. As for why the surgeons had equal outcomes whether they'd pulled a night shift or not, she said that while it's possible that overnight work didn't affect their performance, she thinks that explanation is less likely than others. "More likely the current way doctors self-regulate mitigates the harms of overnight work for their patients," she said. "For example, surgeons who don't tolerate sleep deprivation well may never schedule surgery the day after taking an overnight call." Another thing surgeons might do, she said, is to change their surgery plans for the next day by cancelling or delaying surgeries. The study was published online Aug. 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

SOURCE: HealthDay News, August 2015

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 Joint Pain !

Joint Pain Tied To Common Type 2 Diabetes Drugs - FDA

Use of a class of widely prescribed medications for type 2 diabetes is tied to severe joint pain in some patients, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned. The drugs -- sitagliptin, saxagliptin, linagliptin and alogliptin -- come from a newer class of medications called DPP-4 inhibitors. The drugs can be taken alone or used in conjunction with other diabetes drugs, such as metformin. DPP-4 inhibitors help fight type 2 diabetes by boosting the amount of insulin the body produces after each meal, when blood sugar levels are typically high. However, in a statement, the FDA said the medications "may cause joint pain that can be severe and disabling," and the agency "has added a new Warning and Precaution about this risk to the labels of all medicines in this drug class." The FDA stressed that patients who take a DPP-4 inhibitor should not stop using the drug, "but should contact their health care professional right away if they experience severe and persistent joint pain." Doctors and other health-care workers should "consider DPP-4 inhibitors as a possible cause of severe joint pain and discontinue the drug if appropriate," the agency said. Type 2 diabetes, which is often but not always linked to obesity, affects about 95 percent of people with diabetes. As the FDA noted, "when untreated, type 2 diabetes can lead to serious problems, including blindness, nerve and kidney damage, and heart disease."

SOURCE: HealthDay News, August 2015

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 Psoriasis Alert !

Psoriasis Linked To Higher Risk Of Depression

People with psoriasis may be twice as likely to experience depression as those without the common skin condition, regardless of its severity, a new study suggests. "Psoriasis in general is a pretty visible disease," study author said. "Psoriasis patients are fearful of the public's stigmatization of this visible disease and are worried about how people who are unfamiliar with the disease may perceive them or interact with them." Genetic or biologic factors may also play a role in the link between depression and psoriasis, which requires more research, he said. Either way, the findings mean that all individuals with psoriasis could benefit from screening for depression, he said, and their friends and family members should be aware of the connection as well. The researchers analyzed the responses of more than 12,000 U.S. adults in the 2009-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, nearly 3 percent of responders reported that they had psoriasis, and about 8 percent had major depression based on their answers to a depression screening assessment. Among those with psoriasis, 16.5 percent had sufficient symptoms for a diagnosis of major depression. Those with any degree of psoriasis had double the odds of having depression even after taking into account their age, sex, race, weight, physical activity level, alcohol use and history of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and smoking, the researchers said.

SOURCE: HealthDay News, August 2015

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 Shorter Women Risk !

Shorter Women, Higher Odds For Preterm Birth?

A pregnant woman's height may affect her risk for preterm birth, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at data on nearly 3,500 Nordic women and their babies. They found that shorter mothers had shorter pregnancies, smaller babies and a higher risk for preterm birth. "Our finding shows that a mother's height has a direct impact on how long her pregnancy lasts," researcher said. "The explanation for why this happens is unclear but could depend not only on unknown genes but also on woman's lifetime of nutrition and her environment," researcher added. That said, short women shouldn't worry that they're destined to deliver prematurely. The study only found an association between short stature and preterm birth, not a direct cause-and-effect relationship. The study was published online in the journal PLoS Medicine. Preterm birth, which takes place before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the leading cause of death of newborns in the United States, where more than 450,000 babies are born early each year. The country's preterm birth rate is worse than many other wealthy nations, researcher said. "That a woman's height influences gestational length, independent of the genes she passes on that determine fetal size, is a major finding by our research networks, and the first of what we expect to be many genetic contributions," researcher said.  
SOURCE: HealthDay News, August 2015

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 New Drug !

FDA Approves Evolocumab For High Cholesterol

Evolocumab has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the second non-statin drug in its class approved to treat high cholesterol. The injected drug, among a new class called PCSK9 inhibitors, is sanctioned for people who are unable to reduce levels of the so-called LDL "bad" cholesterol with statin therapy and exercise, the agency said in a news release. Low-density lipoprotein, commonly known as LDL, builds up in the blood from natural and food sources, and is a leading cause of heart disease. About one in four deaths in the United States is linked to heart disease, making it the top cause of death among men and women. The condition kills about 610,000 people in the United States annually, the FDA said. Evolocumab is an antibody that targets the PCSK9 protein, which inhibits the liver's ability to remove LDL from the blood. Its most common side effects include nasal and throat inflammation, upper respiratory infection, flu, back pain and injection-site reactions. In a clinical study, participants taking evolocumab saw an average drop in LDL cholesterol of about 60 percent, compared with those who took a placebo, the FDA said.
SOURCE: HealthDay News, August 2015

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 Products of SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Product Zanthin®
Generic Name Astaxanthine
  Strength 2 mg, 4 mg
  Dosage form Licap
  Therapeutic Category Antioxidant
Product Solo®  IV Infusion0
Generic Name

Sodium Chloride

Strength 0.90%
Dosage form IV Infusion
Therapeutic Category Electrolyte
Product Lactoring® IV Infusion
  Generic Name Hartmann's Solution
  Strength  
  Dosage form IV Infusion
  Therapeutic Category Electrolyte

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