Diabetes raging
The number of Americans diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the kind associated with obesity, has topped 19 million, and a study says a third of adults with the disease don’t even know they have it. Researchers found that another 26 percent of adults had “impaired fasting glucose,” a precursor to diabetes.
“So, if you add that together with the 9.3 percent of people with diabetes, that means that fully one-third of the adult population–73 million Americans–have diabetes or they may be on their way to getting it,” said lead researcher Catherine Cowie, director of the diabetes epidemiology program at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Her team’s report appears in the June issue of Diabetes Care.
New cancer test
A type of screening called magnetic resonance spectroscopy may reduce the need for biopsies of breast abnormalities by 58 percent, researchers report.
A team at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City found that when MR spectroscopy was conducted in addition to MRI screening for breast abnormalities, 23 out of the 40 masses would not have needed biopsy, and all of the cancers would have been caught.
“All cancers in this study were identified with MR spectroscopy. There were no false-negative results,” said lead researcher Dr. Lia Bartella, an assistant professor in the Department of Breast Imaging.
Eye-fungus toll
Thirty-seven of 120 people with a severe fungal eye infection linked to a popular Bausch & Lomb contact lens solution have had to have corneal transplants, U.S. officials report. That’s 31 percent of the Fusarium keratitis cases examined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Experts expect that percentage will climb even further, to perhaps 50 percent. A transplant may be necessary for patients who don’t respond to initial treatment with eyedrops and oral medication. There are also some patients who respond to medication but who nevertheless end up with scarring of the cornea. They, too, will need transplants.
Bausch & Lomb permanently removed that particular contact-lens solution, known as ReNu with MoistureLoc, from the market on May 15.
