Intensive blood pressure control doesn’t slow the progression of chronic kidney disease any better than standard blood pressure control in most patients, according to a report in the Sept. 2 New England Journal of Medicine.

Long-term use of the weight loss drug sibutramine was not associated with an increased risk of death; however, the drug was associated with a significantly increased risk of nonfatal myocardial infarctions and strokes among overweight and obese people with preexisting cardiovascular conditions, based on data from the Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcomes (SCOUT) trial.

An automated assay designed for use in Third World regions rapidly and accurately detected Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and resistance to rifampin, according to a report published online Sept. 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Alternatives to tigecycline “should be considered” when treating patients with serious infections because the intravenous antibiotic has been associated with an increased mortality rate in this population, according to a safety alert issued by the Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 1.

STOCKHOLM (EGMN) – Use of the oral factor Xa inhibitor apixaban slashed the risk of stroke or systemic embolism by more than half, compared with daily aspirin, in patients with atrial fibrillation who were candidates for but unable to take warfarin, in the phase III AVERROES trial.

The first human trial of metformin for precancerous colorectal lesions hints that the diabetes drug may be poised for a second incarnation – this time as a chemopreventive agent for several cancers, including lung, colon, and prostate cancers, and even breast malignancies.

All health care workers should be vaccinated annually against influenza, and doing so should be a condition of new or continued employment, according to a position paper from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

Prophylactic mastectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy significantly decrease mortality as well as the risks of breast and ovarian cancer among women who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, according to a report published in the Sept. 1 issue of JAMA .

Among births that occur during the term and postterm range of 37-44 weeks’ gestation, the risk of cerebral palsy is lowest at 40 weeks and highest at the “early” extreme of 37-38 weeks and the “late” extreme of 42 weeks or more, according to a report in the Sept. 1 issue of JAMA.

STOCKHOLM (EGMN) – The use of fondaparinux as an antithrombotic agent in percutaneous coronary intervention for acute coronary syndromes could get a major boost in clinical practice now that the optimal dose of adjunctive unfractionated heparin has been carefully defined in the large randomized FUTURA/OASIS-8 study.

STOCKHOLM (EGMN) – Four simple clinical conditions play the biggest role in risk-stratifying outpatients with stable atherothrombotic disease, based on a 45,000-patient, international registry followed for 4 years.

One in three first time mothers are being delivered by cesarean section, and prelabor repeat cesarean deliveries contribute almost one-third of cesarean deliveries overall, according to a National Institutes of Health study.

Approximately 40% of emergency department visits for sports-related concussions in young athletes occurred in children aged 8-13 years, based on data from concussion-related ED visits in the United States between 2001 and 2005, according to a study published online Aug. 30 in Pediatrics.

Black patients who received drug-eluting stents were significantly more likely to develop stent thrombosis compared with nonblack patients, based on data from more than 7,000 adults published online Aug. 30 in Circulation.

In an article titled “Heart Rate Cut With Ivabradine, Trims Heart Failure Deaths in Phase III Study” (published Aug. 30, 2010), mortality was incorrectly described in reference to the study’s primary end point. The sentence should have read: “This safety finding and the significant impact of the investigational drug both on the combined primary end point of the study and on heart failure mortality should give ivabradine a clear path toward U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, followed by widespread adoption in practice, predicted U.S. heart failure experts.”

STOCKHOLM (EGMN) – Patients’ possession of a clopidogrel loss-of-function genetic polymorphism is likely to worsen outcomes when the antiplatelet agent is prescribed for acute coronary syndromes that are likely to be treated with coronary stenting, but not when the drug is given for atrial fibrillation or chronic coronary artery disease.

STOCKHOLM (EGMN) – Patients with moderate to severe systolic heart failure and an elevated heart rate had a marked drop in their rate of heart failure death and hospitalization when they were treated with the heart-rate–lowering drug ivabradine in a phase III, randomized trial with more than 6,500 patients.

Annual estimates of influenza-associated deaths from 1976-2007 varied substantially by season, influenza virus type, underlying cause of death, and age group, according to revised statistical models, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported August 27 in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.