New Clinical Alerts Issued

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) have issued two new Clinical Alerts:

• Diet and Exercise Dramatically Delay Type 2 Diabetes; Diabetes Medication Metformin Also Effective
• NHLBI-Funded Emphysema Study Finds Certain Patients at High Risk for Death Following Lung Surgery

Diet and Exercise Dramatically Delay Type 2 Diabetes; Diabetes Medication Metformin Also Effective
This alert showed that, according to the findings of a major clinical trial, those at high risk for type 2 diabetes can lower their chances of getting the disease with diet and exercise. Findings also showed that treatment with the oral diabetes drug metformin (Glucophage^®) reduces diabetes risk, though less dramatically than modest lifestyle and diet changes. The clinical trial was stopped one year early due to these findings.

NHLBI-Funded Emphysema Study Finds Certain Patients at High Risk for Death Following Lung Surgery
This alert showed that emphysema patients who have severe lung obstruction with either limited ability to exchange gas when breathing or damage that is evenly distributed throughout their lungs receive little benefit from lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) and are at high risk of death from the procedure, according to early results from the National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT). NETT is a five-year, multicenter, randomized study to evaluate the role of LVRS in the treatment of severe emphysema.