Tag: 26/9/22

Categories : AllergiesTags : Leave a comment

New Guideline to Tackle Incorrect Penicillin Allergy Labelling

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Photo by MedicAlert UK on Unsplash

A new guideline published in Clinical & Experimental Allergy will help non-allergist clinicians evaluate and test patients for potential penicillin allergies.

Penicillin allergy labels are carried by 5.6% of the general population, with a seemingly higher incidence in hospitalised patients. About 95% of penicillin allergy labels are incorrect when tested.

Over the past 10 years, the clinical ramifications of a label of ‘penicillin allergy’ have been clearly defined. A diagnosis of penicillin allergy increases the risk of MRSA, Clostriodes difficile or VRE infections and death; presumably through increased use of alternatives to beta-lactam antibiotics. It also increases the duration of hospital admissions and has significant implications for the cost of health care. Several studies have shown the healthcare costs of the label and the economic benefits of removing incorrect labels.

Despite widespread evidence of its harms, resources are not available in the NHS for penicillin allergy testing, prompting the development of this guideline.

The guideline was developed by the Standards of Care Committee of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) along with a committee of experts and key stakeholders.

The aim of this guideline is to provide a framework for the set-up and delivery of penicillin allergy de-labelling services by non-allergists by using drug provocation testing. The intended users are non-allergists with an interest in clarifying the penicillin allergy status of their patients. The target population is adult and children with an untested label of penicillin allergy. 

There are separate recommendations for adults and children within the guideline.

“The intended users are non-allergists with an interest in clarifying the penicillin allergy status of their patients. The guideline details appropriate patient selection, risk stratification, minimum safety standards, conduct of a drug provocation test, and the degree of oversight required from allergy or immunology specialists,” the authors wrote. “The guideline will be reviewed 5 years from original publication date.”

Source: Wiley

Categories : New Compounds and TreatmentsTags : Leave a comment

Harnessing Metals to Fight Fungal Infections

On By ModernMedia
Source: NCI

Even as new, drug-resistant fungal strains are being detected, the development of new antifungal drugs has reached a virtual standstill in recent years. Today, only around a dozen clinical trials are underway with new active agents for the treatment of fungal infections. A new drug discovery effort, reported in JACS Au, has identified a range of metal compounds that are highly effective as antifungals, but mistrust around using metals in drugs remains.

“In comparison with more than a thousand cancer drugs that are currently being tested on human subjects, this is an exceptionally small number,” explains Dr Angelo Frei of the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Bern, lead author of the study.

To encourage the development of anti-fungal and antibacterial agents, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia have founded the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery, or CO-ADD. The ambitious goal of the initiative is to find new antimicrobial active agents by offering chemists worldwide the opportunity to test any chemical compound against bacteria and fungi at no cost. As Frei explains, the initial focus of CO-ADD has been on “organic” molecules, which mainly consist of the elements of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, and do not contain any metals.

However, Frei, who is trying to develop new metal-based antibiotics with his research group at the University of Bern, has found that over 1000 of the more than 300 000 compounds tested by CO-ADD contained metals. “For most folks, when used in connection with the word ‘people’, the word metal triggers a feeling of unease. The opinion that metals are fundamentally harmful to us is widespread. However, this is only partially true. The decisive factor is which metal is used and in which form,” explains Frei, who is responsible for all the metal compounds in the CO-ADD database.

In their new study, the researchers turned their attention to the metal compounds which showed activity against fungal infections. Here, 21 highly-active metal compounds were tested against various resistant fungal strains. These contained the metals cobalt, nickel, rhodium, palladium, silver, europium, iridium, platinum, molybdenum and gold. “Many of the metal compounds demonstrated a good activity against all fungal strains and were up to 30 000 times more active against fungi than against human cells,” explains Frei. The most active compounds were then tested in a model organism, the larvae of the wax moth. The researchers observed that just one of the eleven tested metal compounds showed signs of toxicity, while the others were well tolerated by the larvae. In the next step, some metal compounds were tested in an infection model, and one compound was effective in reducing the fungal infection in larvae.

Considerable potential for broad application

Metal compounds are not new to the world of medicine: Cisplatin, for example, which contains platinum, is one of the most widely used anti-cancer drugs. Despite this, there is a long way to go before new antimicrobial drugs that contain metals can be approved. “Our hope is that our work will improve the reputation of metals in medical applications and motivate other research groups to further explore this large but relatively unexplored field,” says Frei. “If we exploit the full potential of the periodic table, we may be able to prevent a future where we don’t have any effective antibiotics and active agents to prevent and treat fungal infections.”

Source: University of Bern

Categories : Ageing Cardiovascular DiseaseTags : Leave a comment

More Older Adults Should Monitor Blood Pressure at Home

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Blood pressure cuff
BP cuff for home monitoring, Source: Pixabay

Only 48% of people age 50 to 80 taking blood pressure medications or have a health condition affected by hypertension regularly check their blood pressure at home or other places, found a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

A somewhat higher number (62%) say a health care provider encouraged them to perform such checks. Poll respondents whose providers had recommended they check their blood pressure at home were three and a half times more likely to do so than those who didn’t recall getting such a recommendation.

The findings underscore the importance of exploring the reasons why at-risk patients aren’t checking their blood pressure, and why providers aren’t recommending they check — as well as finding ways to prompt more people with these health conditions to check their blood pressure regularly. This could play an important role in helping patients live longer and maintain heart and brain health, the study’s authors say.

Past research has shown that regular home monitoring can help with blood pressure control, and that better control can mean reduced risk of death; of cardiovascular events including strokes and heart attacks; and of cognitive impairment and dementia.

A team from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical centre, conducted the research. The data come from the National Poll on Healthy Aging and build on a report issued last year.

The poll, based at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and supported by Michigan Medicine and AARP, asked adults aged 50 to 80 about their chronic health conditions, blood pressure monitoring outside of clinic settings, and interactions with health providers about blood pressure. Study authors Mellanie V. Springer, M.D., M.S., of the Michigan Medicine Department of Neurology, and Deborah Levine, M.D., M.P.H., of the Department of Internal Medicine, worked with the NPHA team to develop the poll questions and analyze the findings.

The data in the new paper come from the 1,247 respondents who said they were either taking a medication to control their blood pressure or had a chronic health condition that requires blood pressure control — specifically, a history of stroke, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease or hypertension.

Of them, 55% said they own a blood pressure monitor, though some said they don’t ever use it. Among those who do use it, there was wide variation in how often they checked their pressure — and only about half said they share their readings with a health provider. But those who own a monitor were more than 10 times more likely to check their blood pressure outside of health care settings than those who don’t own one.

The authors note that blood pressure monitoring is associated with lower blood pressure and is cost-effective. They say that the results suggest that protocols should be developed to educate patients about the importance of self blood pressure monitoring and sharing readings with clinicians.

Source: Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan

Categories : AddictionTags : Leave a comment

Cortisol Levels may Predict Addiction Recovery Success

On By ModernMedia
Depression, young man
Source: Andrew Neel on Unsplash

A new study found that lower initial cortisol levels may serve as a predictor for retention in treatment programs for substance use disorder.

The prospective observational study examined the salivary cortisol, stress exposure, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and treatment retention of males enrolled in abstinence-based, residential alcohol and drug recovery programs. Their findings were published last month in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Cortisol levels reflect a physiological response to stress. In this case, researchers found that participants who remained in the treatment program less than 90 days had significantly higher initial cortisol levels than those who remained in the program longer than 90 days. Further, a Cox proportional hazards model indicated that elevated salivary cortisol, marital/relationship status and ACEs score correlated significantly with hazards of discontinuing the program early.

“Our hope is that these findings will lead to cortisol as a biomarker that can help clinicians determine which individuals might need a more intensive therapeutic approach,” said Todd H. Davies, Ph.D., associate director of research and development at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and corresponding author on the study.

In collaboration with Recovery Point, the researchers have a larger follow-up study underway that seeks to identify the clinical significant levels of cortisol. This expanded study also includes a more representative population and examine the hormone oxytocin.

Source: Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine