The pre-scription - sept03

Today, sickle cell anaemia is found mainly in equatorial Africa, North anaemia was reported in early 1995 when a study in the US showedAmerica (where about 80,000 people have the disease), southern that daily doses of the decades-old antineoplastic agent hydroxyurea Italy, northern Greece, southern Turkey, the Middle East, Saudi (Droxia - Bristol-Myers Squibb) reduced the frequency of painful crises Arabia and the eastern province of central India. The disease and lessened the need for blood transfusions. Approved by the FDA in occurs in approximately one in every 500 African-American births 1998, it appears to work by stimulating production of protective foetal and one in every 1,000-1,400 Hispanic-American births. Roughly haemoglobin within the red blood cells.
9% of African-Americans have the trait.
Apart from hydroxyurea, there have been several other advances in Early diagnosis of sickle cell anaemia is vital to ensure that children treatment over the past 5 years. But gene therapy surely holds the key who have the disease receive proper treatment, and in the US more to a major breakthrough and a number of approaches are being than 40 states now perform a simple blood test on all new-born explored. One line of research is looking at whether correcting the Coughing could save
babies. States where screening is carried out report survival rates in defective HbS gene and inserting it into the bone marrow of people withchildren with sickle cell disease that are equal to those of African- sickle cell anaemia will result in the production of normal haemoglobin.
lives
Americans without the disease. It is also now possible to check for Another investigation is exploring the feasibility of turning off the genetic problems before the child is born, either through defective gene whilst simultaneously reactivating another gene that page 1
amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling. You'll find more turns on the production of foetal haemoglobin.
Study reveals ACE
information at Testing Your Baby for Genetic Problems During inhibitor can have
The disease known in some African languages as 'a state of suffering' The pre-SCRIPTION is a complementary newsletter
lifesaving benefits
now appears to be at the mercy of human ingenuity and endeavour; the that provides Nigerian healthcare professionals with a
Only about 50% of people with sickle cell anaemia live beyond 50 possibility of an eventual cure for sickle cell anaemia, although many page 2
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years and whilst there's no cure for the disorder, other than developments within the industry that can be found
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improving, and increasing numbers of patients are now living into holiday” risk
adulthood. Basic treatment of sickle cell crises relies mainly on page 3
1. http://sickle.bwh.harvard.edu/scd_history.html analgesics to alleviate pain and administration of fluids for 2. http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/HEMEHTML/HEME062.html rehydration. Blood transfusions are used to correct anaemia and Apply TODAY for FREE membership to pre-SCRIBE.com 3. http://www.aafp.org/afp/20000301/1349.html Athletes’ gene
treat spleen enlargement in children, and regular transfusions can 4. http://www.sicklecellsociety.org/inherit.htm identified
also help to prevent recurring strokes in children at risk of 5. http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic26.htm developing crippling nervous system complications. Click on Sickle- Walk proves as good as a workout for
patients used the technique, the symptoms page 3
6. http://www.sicklecellsociety.org/prenatal.htm women
and scroll down to Treatment of Sickle-Cell 7. http://my.webmd.com/webmd_today/home/404 You don't need to go for the burn to shed pounds. A walk to the bus stop is as good as an proven and so couldn't be recommended 'as a The first effective drug treatment for adults with severe sickle cell weight, American researchers say. The study A tour around Sickle
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University of Pittsburgh, published in the Three Fruit and Veg a Day Enough
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Neck treatments “do not work”
OCCUPATION:
2003 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited Researchers in Finland say two treatmentsused to alleviate neck pain are a waste of INSTITUTION:
Diabetes risk with Atkins
Doctors say slimmers who follow the Atkins diet training and relaxation therapy, both of which may be at an increased risk of developing involve learning how to strengthen or relax key ADDRESS:
diabetes. They say following the high-protein muscles, do not work. Dr Matti Viljanen and regime for a prolonged period could lead to colleagues at the Institute of Occupational raised cholesterol levels, which in turn might Health in Tampere base their findings on a trigger diabetes. Diabetes specialist Dr Jim study of female office workers with chronic Mann of the University of Otago, New Zealand, neck pain. After a year they found that the PHONE:
also claims the Atkins diet creates a resistance women who had done dynamic muscle training to insulin - another condition that can lead to and relaxation therapy had the same level of diabetes. He said of the diet: 'I tell my patients neck pain as those who had no treatment at all.
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under no circumstances do I recommend it.' Dental care cuts birth risks
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Coughing Could Save Lives
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Heart attack deaths can be prevented by deep woman’s risk of giving birth prematurely, coughing, according to Polish doctors. They say regular coughing at the first signs of severe treating severe gum disease with scaling and NUMBER/REF:
chest pains pushes blood through the body to root care cut premature births by 84 per cent.
the brain. This could help patients survive until Professor Marjorie Jeffcoat, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham school of dentistry, a copy of The pre-SCRIPTION to be sent to me each month Cardiological Foundation in Katowice and his who led the research, said, “I recommend that team trained 115 patients at high-risk of heart attack to cough when they experienced sudden pregnant or who are pregnant receive a full Copyright 2003, TradeLink International Ltd & pre-SCRIBE.com. All rights reserved
Apply TODAY for FREE membership to pre-SCRIBE.com Apply TODAY for FREE membership to pre-SCRIBE.com Next issue of The pre-SCRIPTION out in October periodontal exam and diagnosis.” Doctors have generic medicines could be imported to cure New drug offers hope to heart patients
already established that severe gum infections any life-threatening disease, so long as it was a A new drug could help as many as five million focus-ON: A tour around Sickle Cell Anaemia public health emergency." Assurances that people in the UK with a condition that doubles by Geoff Barnett, Freelance Medical Writer and Editor
prostaglandin and tumour necrosis factor, countries would not take advantage of the the risk of dying from heart disease. Results of a trial of rosuvastatin show that it has a broad Sir Archibald Edward Garrod (1857-1936) was an English physician ahead of his time. Combining a perceptive understanding of copies of patented drugs to reap commercial range of effects against metabolic syndrome, biochemistry with a thorough knowledge of Mendelian laws, he was the first person to suggest that some diseases were caused by profits rather than public health needs, was key Study reveals ACE inhibitor can have
to getting the U.S. to sign on, a news source inborn errors of metabolism. Although well symptoms are obesity, high triglycerides, documented, his work was largely ignored, and not YOUR DIABETES CENTRE
lifesaving benefits
reports. This assurance also won the backing cholesterol problems, high blood pressure and A large four-year study of over 12,000 adults of the drug industry."The final piece of the until the middle of the twentieth century was the www.yourdiabetescentre.com
with coronary artery disease finds that adding jigsaw has fallen into place. It proves once and symptoms is suffered by one in five men and link between many diseases and heredity proven.
an ACE inhibitor to their daily medication one in four women. It is linked to an increased Among those disorders that paved the way for this The Diabetes Association of Nigeria and NGC lowered the risk of dying from a heart attack or humanitarian as well as trade concerns," risk of heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and acceptance was sickle cell anaemia; and among Healthcare have teamed up to bring you the essential stroke by 20 percent compared to those not Supachai Panitchpakdi, director general of the those who showed that the haemoglobin from resource for information about diabetes management WTO is quoted by a news source as saying.
(26/08/03) showed that rosuvastatin, sold by patients with the disease was fundamentally AstraZeneca as Crestor, cut bad cholesterol different from that of normal people was a famous Nobel prizewinner. Spot his name at A Brief History of Sickle Cell Disease ( .
levels by 46 per cent. According to Professor Society of Cardiology in Vienna, also found that Dental care cuts birth risks
Steen Stender of Gentofte Hospital in Denmark, Sickle cell anaemia is an inherited blood disorder characterised it in your back, your legs, your chest. It's constant.' HbS is caused patients had a greater chance of surviving a Simple dental treatment may reduce a woman’s who led the study, it also had other effects primarily by anaemia and episodes of pain, and is caused by a by a defective gene that instructs the body to manufacture the heart attack if they were taking the drug. ACE risk of giving birth prematurely, research which make it particularly suitable for treating genetic defect in the haemoglobin (Hb) molecule. A normal red abnormal haemoglobin. The error in the gene - the most common blood cell contains a molecule known as haemoglobin A (HbA); inherited blood condition in the US - came about as the result of a coronary artery patients over 55 and others severe gum disease with scaling and root care in a sickle red blood cell, a variant of this molecule exists and is genetic mutation that occurred several thousand years ago in who are considered at a high risk of dying from cut premature births by 84 per cent. Professor called haemoglobin S (HbS). The difference between HbA and people in parts of Africa, the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East complications from diabetes or hypertension.
Marjorie Jeffcoat, of the University of Alabama Progress on tenacity of H. pylori
HbS lies in only one amino acid out of about three hundred that Dr. Kim Fox, from the Royal Brompton Hospital at Birmingham school of dentistry, who led the and India. Involving a deadly form of malaria, this is a fascinating Scientists in Germany may have found out why are common to both, but this tiny abnormality has devastating in London, who was the director of the study, research, said, “I recommend that all women the body cannot eradicate Helicobacter pylori, said that the study is a milestone in that it who are thinking of becoming pregnant or who a potentially deadly bacterium found in the guts "proved for the first time that an ACE inhibitor are pregnant receive a full periodontal exam of half of all middle-aged men. The bug, which Fortunately the majority of people with a high genetic risk of sickle can have lifesaving benefits even in younger causes stomach ulcers and is linked to gastric The sickle cell disease process is triggered when HbS cell anaemia inherit only one copy of the HbS gene from their coronary patients and those considered to be established that severe gum infections cause cancer, seems to be able to evade the immune molecules yield their oxygen to the tissues. Some of them parents; the other Hb gene is normal and able to override HbS, at low risk of complications," a news source an increase in the production of prostaglandin aggregate to form long rods (polymers) that distort the normal, blocking the development of the disease. Such people have the and tumour necrosis factor, chemicals which flexible, doughnut-shaped cells into rigid, sickle-shaped cells.
sickle cell trait and lead largely normal lives, but run the risk of perindopril. "Perindopril added to standard Medizinische Mikrobiologie, in Munich, say a Haematopathology(2) is a photomicrograph of a blood smear passing on the abnormal gene to their offspring. Children who optimal therapy over a four year period would toxin released by H. pylori is able to target a that clearly shows the cells' distinctive crescent shape.
inherit copies of the defective gene from both parents will develop stop 100,000 heart attacks or cardiovascular full-blown sickle cell anaemia. All of this is explained Fats “help body fight TB”
Because of their shape, the sickled cells move less smoothly diagrammatically at How are Sickle Cell Anaemia and Sickle Cell 60 million," Fox is quoted by a news source as Dietary fats could help the body fight against mechanism which produces inflammation - a than normal red blood cells through small blood vessels, reduce saying. The study's results may increase the tuberculosis (TB), researchers have suggested.
the blood's rate of flow, stack up like a log jam and cause number of patients prescribed ACE inhibitors, However, it is not yet clear whether eating the experts say, according to the news sources.
fats could be used as a treatment for TB, and blockages that deprive the tissues and organs of oxygenated Symptoms of sickle cell anaemia usually don't occur until late in the researchers, writing in Nature Cell Biology, say New benefit to blood pressure drug
blood. In turn, this process produces the periodic episodes of baby's first year and typically include fever, swelling of the hands further work should be carried out to find out A drug used to treat high blood pressure could pain, or 'crises', that may start suddenly and last for many hours and feet, pain in the chest, abdomen, limbs and joints, and WTO reaches an agreement on poor
more about how their properties could be used.
or extend to several days. There is wide variation from person enlargement of the heart, liver and spleen. Frequent upper nations' access to generic drugs
The body’s macrophages go through certain diabetes. Losartan has already been shown to to person and crisis to crisis, ranging from mild discomfort that respiratory tract infections are common. After infancy, patients significantly cut the risks of having a stroke, is treatable at home, to excruciating pain that requires develop symptoms of anaemia, and pain is the most frequent agreement that poor nations would be allowed destroy the bacteria. TB prevents a key stage and now research in Sweden indicates it may hospitalisation. The subject is well covered in a paper published complaint. At Anaemia, Sickle Cell, (5) under the headings Vaso- to import generic versions of patented drugs of this process, disabling the cells. This latest reduce by half the risk of diabetics dying from a earlier this year in the American Family Physician entitled occlusive, Haematologic and Infectious Crises, there's a list of and could purchase them from countries like research suggests certain fatty acids, such as Approach to the Vaso-occlusive Crisis in Adults with Sickle Cell clinical manifestations that reflect their diversity and wide organ India and Brazil, news sources report. The arachidonic acid, found in meat, can prevent Disease.(3) One patient vividly describes the pain thus: '. like this disabling taking place, allowing the body's the worst toothache you can imagine. Now take that pain and put defence system to work efficiently. But they Pfizer's Lipitor proves highly effective for
that it rejected last December when it said that also said omega-3 fats, found in oily fish, had a cutting heart attack risk in diabetes patients
the plan should be restricted to a few diseases slightly negative effect on the body's ability to heart attacks and strokes in patients with diabetes, news sources The Collaborative Atorvastatin Diabetes Study, appears that the gene exists in two versions, one of which delivers a report. The study was halted so that all of the approximately 2,800 and limited to certain countries. However, this slated to run four years, has ended two years protein called actinin-3 which gives extra power to muscle fibres. In a enrolled patients could benefit from Pfizer's cholesterol fighter. The type early after Lipitor proved significantly effective study of the genetic profiles of 300 athletes, 95 per cent of the best proposal, "but included the demand that such 2 patients enrolled in the study had no previous history of heart disease in reducing major coronary events such as sprinters had at least one copy of the gene variation, and 50 per cent or stroke; however, the disease is considered one of the biggest risk had two copies. Only 5 per cent of sprinters had two copies of the non- factors for those conditions. Patients in the study received 10 milligrams of the drug each day. Pfizer's Lipitor is the world's top-selling Fluorquinolones use associated with reduced CHD risk in Type II diabetes
drug. In the first quarter of 2003, it raked in sales of $2.1 billion.
Results of a study published in the October issue of the European Heart Journal (2002;23:1575-1579) suggest that Merck drug “reduces risk of prostate cancer”
treatment with fluorquinolones in doses commonly prescribed in routine clinical practice is associated with a reduction in Merck’s drug to treat enlarged prostates, Proscar, has been found to the risk of coronary heart diseases (CHD) among Type II diabetes patients.
HIV “treatment holiday” risk
reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men by 25 per cent, according to a Patients who take a break from their HIV drugs on the instructions of government study published yesterday (24/06/03). The Prostate Data were obtained from the PHARMO Record Linkage System comprising their doctors may risk the condition getting worse, say experts.
Cancer Prevention Trial said finasteride, the generic name for Proscar, pharmacy records and hospitalisations for all 450,000 residents of 8 Dutch Although some studies have suggested that so-called "treatment helped prevent prostate cancer over a seven-year period. The data cities. In a nested case-control study among Type II diabetes patients, 244 holidays" could actually improve their health, researchers at the could allow Merck to market the drug for the prevention of the disease.
cases with a first hospitalisation for CHD and 686 controls without CHD University of California say that it could be harmful for a few patients.
matched on age, sex, calendar time and registration date in PHARMO RLS Tests during a four-month trial suggested that the break may speed up were selected. Use of antibiotic drugs among cases and controls was the attack on the immune system. Their results, published in the NewEngland Journal of Medicine, will be a disappointment to those experts HEALTH INSURANCE
determined over 3 years prior to the event. Use of fluorquinolones was who hoped that treatment holidays could be a way of tackling HIV associated with a lower risk of CHD. No association between tetracycline, which has grown resistant to modern drug cocktails. The theory is that Would you like to protect your
macrolide and lincosamide treatment, or other antibiotic drugs (penicillins, when the treatment is resumed, it would have a far greater impact, cephalosporines, sulphonamides and trimethoprim), and the risk of CHD health with one of the worlds
leading healthcare providers.
Espicom Business Intelligence, 21/10/02 Athletes’ gene identified
Australian scientists believe they have identified a gene that gives PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS NEWSLETTER TO YOUR COLLEAGUES
sprinters the sudden speed and power they need to succeed. It

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