New test could identify infants with rare insulin disease
2014-10-23
(Press-News.org) A rare form of a devastating disease which causes low blood sugar levels in babies and infants may now be recognised earlier thanks to a new test developed by researchers from The University of Manchester.
Congenital hyperinsulinism starves a baby's brain of blood sugar and can lead to lifelong brain damage or permanent disability according to previous research carried out by the Manchester team. The condition occurs when specialised cells in the pancreas release too much insulin which causes frequent low sugar episodes - the clinical opposite of diabetes. Treatment includes drugs to reduce insulin release but in the most serious cases the pancreas is removed.
For some infants with this disease, the release of excess insulin is due to mutations in genes which govern the way our bodies control insulin release. But for more than two thirds of child patients the genetic causes are not yet known.
Genes and hormones were analysed in 13 children with congenital hyperinsulisnism at the Manchester Children's Hospital and the findings have been published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
Dr Karen Cosgrove from the Faculty of Life Sciences led the research: "We have discovered a new clinical test which can identify congenital hyperinsulinism in some patients with no known genetic cause of the disease. This is the first step to understanding what causes the disease in these particular patients. In future the test may influence how these children are treated medically, perhaps even avoiding the need to have their pancreas removed."
The new test measures a pair of hormones called incretins which are released by specialised cells in the gut when food is passing through. The hormones normally tell the cells in the pancreas to release more insulin to regulate sugar levels in our blood. If the child's body releases too much incretin hormones, the pancreas will release too much insulin causing dangerous low blood sugar levels.
"Although we are the first researchers to report high incretin hormone levels in patients with congenital hyperinsulinism, further studies are needed to see if our test works on a larger group of patients" says Dr Cosgrove.
Researchers from The University of Manchester along with consultants from the Manchester Children's Hospital, part of Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, teamed up for the study. Royal Manchester Children's Hospital is the base for the Northern Congenital Hyperinsulinism (NorCHI) service, a national centre for treatment of this disease.
Doctor Indi Banerjee, Consultant in Paediatric Endocrinology at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and clinical lead for NorCHI says: "Our new results are timely since clinical trials of a new incretin-blocking treatment for congenital hyperinsulinism have recently started. We anticipate that our clinical test will help to identify the patients who are likely to benefit from this new treatment the most."
Julie Raskin, Executive Director of Congenital Hyperinsulinism International is impressed with the research: "A new diagnostic test for this devastating disease is welcome news to the international hyperinsulinism patient community because timely diagnosis is key to reducing the chance of brain damage and death, and the research also suggests a path to treatment other than sub-total pancreatectomy, which almost always leads to diabetes."
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2014-10-23
Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have discovered that music therapy reduces depression in children and adolescents with behavioural and emotional problems.
In the largest ever study of its kind, the researchers in partnership with the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust, found that children who received music therapy had significantly improved self-esteem and significantly reduced depression compared with those who received treatment without music therapy.
The study, which was funded by the Big Lottery fund, also found that those who received music therapy had ...
2014-10-23
Scientists from the University of Southampton have revealed that feather shafts are made of a multi-layered fibrous composite material, much like carbon fibre, which allows the feather to bend and twist to cope with the stresses of flight.
Since their appearance over 150 million years ago, feather shafts (rachises) have evolved to be some of the lightest, strongest and most fatigue resistant natural structures. However, relatively little work has been done on their morphology, especially from a mechanical perspective and never at the nanoscale.
The study, which is ...
2014-10-23
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Right out of the starting gate, Michigan's expansion of health coverage for the poor and near-poor holds lessons for other states that are still on the fence about expanding their own Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, a new analysis shows.
In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, a team of University of Michigan Medical School researchers publish the first analysis of the initial results from the Healthy Michigan Plan, which launched this past April.
In its first 100 days, the authors write, the plan enrolled 327,912 ...
2014-10-22
Good news, bad news: The amount of trans fats we eat has declined over the last 30 years, but we're still consuming more than recommended.
In a study reported in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers reviewed results from a series of six surveys as part of the Minnesota Heart Survey in 1980-2009.
More than 12,000 adults 25-74 years old in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area revealed that:
Trans fat intake dropped by about one-third in men (32 percent) and women (35 percent).
Average intake of the omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) was steady, but ...
2014-10-22
MINNEAPOLIS – Bariatric surgery may be a risk factor for a condition that causes severe headaches, according to a study published in the October 22, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
In the study, gastric bypass surgery and gastric banding surgery were associated with later developing a condition called spontaneous intracranial hypotension in a small percentage of people. Spontaneous intracranial hypotension is often caused by a leak of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) out of the spinal canal. The leak ...
2014-10-22
No significant variation was found in hospital readmission rates after colorectal cancer surgery when the data was adjusted to account for patient characteristics, coexisting illnesses and operation types, which may prompt questions about the use of readmission rates as a measure of hospital quality.
Hospital readmission after surgery can be common and it results in an increased cost of care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has focused on reducing unplanned hospital readmissions and hospitals are penalized in reimbursement if there are excess readmissions ...
2014-10-22
An online model for follow-up care of atopic dermatitis (eczema) that gave patients direct access to dermatologists resulted in equivalent clinical improvement compared to patients who received traditional in-person care writes author April W. Armstrong, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Colorado, Denver, and colleagues.
There are not enough dermatologists in the United States to meet the demand for services. Teledermatology is a chance to improve access to care.
The authors conducted a one-year randomized controlled equivalency trial that included adults and children ...
2014-10-22
Cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure therapy (CBT/exposure), where patients relive the experience of a death of a loved one, resulted in greater reductions in measures of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) than CBT alone.
PGD involves persistent yearning for the deceased and the associated emotional pain, difficulty in accepting the death, a sense of meaninglessness, bitterness about the death and difficulty in engaging in new activities. To diagnose PGD, the symptoms need to last at least six months. PGD is distinct from depression because of a person's preoccupation ...
2014-10-22
A few short years ago, the idea of a practical manufacturing process based on getting molecules to organize themselves in useful nanoscale shapes seemed ... well, cool, sure, but also a little fantastic. Now the day isn't far off when your cell phone may depend on it. Two recent papers emphasize the point by demonstrating complementary approaches to fine-tuning the key step: depositing thin films of a uniquely designed polymer on a template so that it self-assembles into neat, precise, even rows of alternating composition just 10 or so nanometers wide.
The work by researchers ...
2014-10-22
While studying the atmosphere on Saturn's moon Titan, scientists discovered intriguing zones of organic molecules unexpectedly shifted away from its north and south poles. These misaligned features seem to defy conventional thinking about Titan's windy atmosphere, which should quickly smear out such off-axis concentrations.
"This is an unexpected and potentially groundbreaking discovery," said Martin Cordiner, an astrochemist working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the lead author of a study published online today in the Astrophysical ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] New test could identify infants with rare insulin disease
