Industry News
Notable
In an attempt to
head off a growing diabetes epidemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS; Washington, DC) has recognized a new condition called prediabetes.
The new term is being used by HHS and the American Diabetes Association
(ADA; Alexandria, VA) to describe a condition in which blood glucose levels
are higher than normal but not yet diabetic.
HHS Secretary Tommy
G. Thompson announced that an estimated 16 million Americans are affected by
prediabetes, which raises the risk for developing type II diabetes and increases
the risk of heart disease by 50%. Studies have shown that most people with this
condition go on to develop type II diabetes within 10 years. Thompson also released
an HHS update that estimates the number of Americans suffering from diabetes
has risen to 17 million.
An expert panel
convened by HHS and the ADA recommends that physicians begin screening overweight
people aged 45 and older for prediabetes, using either the fasting blood glucose
test or the oral glucose tolerance test.
In addition, the panel recommended that physicians should consider screening adults under age 45 if they are significantly overweight and have a family history of diabetes, low HDL cholesterol and high triglycerides, high blood pressure, belong to a minority group, or have a history of gestational diabetes.
The National
Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB) has published new guidelines regarding
laboratory testing for the diagnosis and management of individuals with diabetes.
The guidelines focus on biochemical investigation, especially the importance
of glucose, glycated hemoglobin, microalbumin, and lipids in diagnosing and
treating diabetes mellitus.
The "Guidelines and Recommendations for Laboratory Analysis in the Diagnosis and Management of Diabetes Mellitus" were published in the March issue of Clinical Chemistry and the April issue of Diabetes Care.
Digital Gene
Technologies Inc. (DGT; La Jolla, CA) is collaborating with the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI; Chevy Chase, MD) and the Salk Institute
for Biological Sciences (La Jolla, CA) to apply the company's TOGA
gene expression profiling technology in an investigation of retinoid receptor
signaling.
Directed by Ronald
Evans, MD, an HHMI investigator and professor at the Salk Institute, the project
will include studies of retinoid receptor–deficient mice to determine the
role of vitamin A in the synaptic changes that occur in the brain during learning
and memory. The project will also include studies of acute promyelocytic leukemia
cells to learn the mechanism by which retinoids lead to clinical remission of
the disease.
The study is part of DGT's institutional collaboration program.
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