Mixed Bag

Overnight dialysis boosts kidney health -- while reducing risk of heart disease
Receiving dialysis at home while sleeping not only improves kidney health and quality of life for people with kidney disease, it could also decrease their risk of heart disease, says new study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.

"Patients with end-stage renal disease have at least a five-fold increase in cardiovascular complications," says Dr. Christopher Overgaard, one of the study's authors and a cardiologist at the Toronto General Hospital. "Longer dialysis, done while patients are sleeping, may improve the health of arteries and could lower the risk of developing heart disease."

The study found that after patients transitioned to overnight dialysis, there were improvements in coronary artery function. Eurekalert!

Statin, osteoporosis drug combo may help treat parasitic infections
Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a combination of two commonly prescribed drugs used to treat high cholesterol and osteoporosis may serve as the foundation of a new treatment for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. They published their findings recently in PLOS Pathogens.

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite capable of infecting nearly all warm-blooded animals. While healthy human adults usually suffer no lasting ill effects from infection, it can be harmful or fatal to unborn fetuses or those with weakened immune systems. Eurekalert!

Readmit Rates High in IBD (CME/CE)
One in five patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) returned to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, a readmission rate higher than that of other chronic conditions, an investigator reported here. Half of the readmissions were associated with an IBD-related problem, and the cost of readmission was almost 20% greater than the cost of the original hospital stay, according to Saurabh Sethi, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. MedPage Today

Common Cause for Bruxism, Restless Legs, Migraine?
About half of patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) seen in a single neurology practice also qualified for diagnoses of bruxism and migraine, suggesting a possible common cause for these disorders, a researcher said here.

Among 470 patients RLS patients who fully completed a 35-item questionnaire about these and other aspects of their health, 60% said they ground or clenched their teeth at night and 83% reported having been diagnosed with migraine, according to David Dickoff, MD, of Metropolitan Neurological Consultants in Yonkers, N.Y., and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. MedPage Today

Shiitake dermatitis: a report of 3 cases and review of the literature
Shiitake mushroom-induced toxicoderma, or shiitake dermatitis, is a widely recognized phenomenon in Japan, China, and Korea but only recently has been reported outside of Asia. Affected individuals develop a characteristic pattern of whiplike, linear, erythematous wheals within 1 to 2 days after consumption of raw or cooked shiitake mushrooms. Lentinan, a polysaccharide component of shiitake mushrooms with antitumor properties, is thought to instigate a toxic reaction, resulting in the appearance of a rash. Shiitake dermatitis is self-limited and typically resolves within days to weeks of its appearance. Chu EY, Anand D, Dawn A, Elenitsas R, Adler DJ. Cutis. 2013 Jun;91(6):287-90. Review. PMID: 23837150

Medical Homes: Different Models Need Different Yardsticks
As regulators and health policy experts try to determine the effectiveness of patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs), one evaluator says they shouldn't all be judged by the same measuring stick. Instead, those questioning the cost and quality value of PCMHs need to evaluate each model on its own terms, Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, instructor of healthcare policy and PCMH researcher at Harvard Medical School, said here. MedPage Today

Inpatient diabetes education linked to lower readmissions
Inpatients diagnosed with diabetes who receive inpatient diabetes education (IDE) have significantly lower frequency of all-cause hospital readmission within 30 days, according to a study published in the October issue of Diabetes Care. MedicalXpress