Eric Nagourney NYT
New York Obese women who have mammograms are much more likely to receive abnormal readings from the tests than are women of ordinary weight, a new study reports.
An obese woman is 20 percent more likely to be told that she has a positive result and that she needs more tests, resulting in anxiety for her and extra health-care costs, the researchers said. The study, led by Joann Elmore of the Washington University Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, appears in the current issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.
The findings are based on a review of more than 100,000 mammograms performed in the Northwest United States. The women studied were divided intothree groups - normal weight or below, overweight and obese - based on their body-mass index, determined by height and weight. The results were surprising, the researchers said, because obese women are more likely to have fatty breast tissue, which is easier to read in mammography than is dense tissue. The study also found that women of ordinary weight were more likely to get false positives than were underweight women.
In general, obese women are at higher risk than other women for breast cancer after reaching menopause. When cancer is found, it is often at a more advanced stage, perhaps because it is harder for the women to detect small growths during self-examination.
Ellen Schur of Harborview said doctors should explore whether other imaging tests might be better at detecting cancer in obese women.
Heart drugs help diabetic
Drugs commonly prescribed for high blood pressure and heart disease may lower mortality rates in people with diabetes, even if they show no signs of heart or blood pressure problems.
Writing in the journal Diabetes Care, a team of researchers said that in a study over five years of almost 5,000 patients with diabetes, they found significant benefits for those taking the drugs, called ACE inhibitors.
The researchers, led by Jeffrey Johnson of the University of Alberta in Canada,reported that in the period of the study, there was a 51 percent reduction in deaths from all causes among the 1,187 patients taking the medication. There was a 23 percent reduction in deaths related to cardiovascular disease. The study estimated that for every 12 of the diabetics in the study given ACE inhibitors, after about four years, one death was prevented.
The study looked at Type 2 diabetes, which generally affects adults. The average age of the subjects was 60.
Many doctors already prescribe ACE inhibitors to patients with diabetes. But until now, the study said, there was only limited evidence to support benefits of the practice.
ACE inhibitors help blood vessels relax, allowing more oxygen to make it to the heart. They may also block an enzyme that appears to help bring about cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death for diabetics, the American Diabetes Association says. Diabetics are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease as people without diabetes.
The New York Times