by Brenda Mooney
Women represented less than 10% of U.S. veterans in 2017, according to the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, but the number of women veterans receiving VHA care has increased by 22.1%, from 423,642 in 2014 to 517,241 in 2018 and is predicted to burgeon even more in the future. That’s why studies such as one examining the role of estrogen and menopause in glaucoma are so important to the VA.
by Brenda Mooney
Conventional wisdom has suggested that insulin requirements go down with advanced chronic kidney disease in Type 2 diabetes patients. That does not always appear to be the case, however. A recent study found that patients with both T2D and CKD are at much higher risk of severe hypoglycemia with insulin use.
by Annette Boyle
Hyperglycemia and diabetes are common in hospitalized patients. Managing that amid the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the more recent staff shortages, has been extremely difficult at the VA and elsewhere. Increased use of continuous glucose monitoring has helped the situation.
by Mary Anne Dunkin
Because they are molecularly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, patients with chronic lung diseases appear to be primed for worse outcomes after infection, through the dysregulation of genes related to viral replication and the innate immune response in epithelial cells, and basal differences in inflammatory cell gene expression programs, according to a new study. The authors cautioned that patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are most at risk but the greater danger also affects those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and interstitial lung disease.
by Brenda Mooney
Nearly 70% of bipolar patients are initially misdiagnosed and a third or more still haven’t gotten an appropriate diagnosis a decade later. Making the situation even more troubling is that many bipolar patients are being treated for major depressive disorder and receiving antidepressants alone – therapy that is suspected of actually destabilizing mood.
