News by Subject Medicine & Health

The first new national guidelines since 2004 on identifying and treating high blood pressure in children and adolescents (aged 3-18 years old) have been published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which convened a panel of experts to produce the new recommendations. The AAP report, offers a series of evidence-based recommendations for pediatricians derived from a comprehensive review of nearly 15,000 medical studies published since 2004.

A re-analysis of all-cause mortality in the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) evidence review for colorectal cancer screening found that flexible sigmoidoscopy reduces risk for death. These findings suggest that the USPSTF guidelines for colorectal cancer screening, which concluded that no colorectal cancer screening methods reduced all-cause mortality, could be reassessed.

Adolescence can be turbulent period of life, with struggles to establish autonomy, identity issues and risk-taking behaviours. For young adults with a chronic illness such as type 1 diabetes, this transition phase also means they must assume an increased responsibility for their overall health. A study from the McGill University Health Centre sheds light on gaps in transition care practice in Quebec, pointing out a lack of standardized policies across pediatric diabetes centers.

Patients at risk for type 2 diabetes are often asked to exercise, but exercise doesn't help each patient equally. To investigate this variability, a sample of women were divided by their levels of insulin resistance (lower/ higher), a warning sign for diabetes, all underwent high-intensity interval training. The training generally improved all metrics of cardiometabolic health tested. Women with higher insulin resistance more often saw improvements in the measures of glucose and insulin in their blood.

Hemodialysis requires repeated access to the blood. Failure to maintain adequate access to the vasculature is a major cause of medical complications and, potentially, death for these patients. A new study in The American Journal of Pathology provides information about the mechanisms underlying failure of the most common type of hemodialysis vascular access, the arteriovenous fistula. Despite being the preferred approach, there is currently limited understanding of the mechanisms involved in fistula maturation failure.

A high amount and intensity of exercise along with a diet plan resulted in a modest reduction in blood glucose levels among adults with type 2 diabetes, but was accompanied by reductions in the use of glucose-lowering medications, according to a study published by JAMA.