Carbohydrate Counting App Using Image Recognition for Youth With Type 1 Diabetes: Pilot Randomized Control Trial.

BACKGROUND: Carbohydrate counting is an important component of diabetes management, but it is challenging, often performed inaccurately, and can be a barrier to optimal diabetes management. iSpy is a novel mobile app that leverages machine learning to allow food identification through images and that was designed to assist youth with type 1 diabetes in counting carbohydrates. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to test the app's usability and potential impact on carbohydrate counting accuracy. METHODS: Iterative usability testing (3 cycles) was conducted involving a total of 16 individuals aged 8.5-17.0 years with type 1 diabetes. Participants were provided a mobile device and asked to complete tasks using iSpy app features while thinking aloud. Errors were noted, acceptability was assessed, and refinement and retesting were performed across cycles. Subsequently, iSpy was evaluated in a pilot randomized controlled trial with 22 iSpy users and 22 usual care controls aged 10-17 years. Primary outcome was change in carbohydrate counting ability over 3 months. Secondary outcomes included levels of engagement and acceptability. Change in HbA1c level was also assessed. RESULTS: Use of iSpy was associated with improved carbohydrate counting accuracy (total grams per meal, P=.008), reduced frequency of individual counting errors greater than 10 g (P=.047), and lower HbA1c levels (P=.03). Qualitative interviews and acceptability scale scores were positive. No major technical challenges were identified. Moreover, 43% (9/21) of iSpy participants were still engaged, with usage at least once every 2 weeks, at the end of the study. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide evidence of efficacy and high acceptability of a novel carbohydrate counting app, supporting the advancement of digital health apps for diabetes care among youth with type 1 diabetes. Further testing is needed, but iSpy may be a useful adjunct to traditional diabetes management. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04354142; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04354142.

Hypertension Canada's 2020 Comprehensive Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, Risk Assessment, and Treatment of Hypertension in Adults and Children.

Hypertension Canada's 2020 guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment of hypertension in adults and children provide comprehensive, evidence-based guidance for health care professionals and patients. Hypertension Canada develops the guidelines using rigourous methodology, carefully mitigating the risk of bias in our process. All draft recommendations undergo critical review by expert methodologists without conflict to ensure quality. Our guideline panel is diverse, including multiple health professional groups (nurses, pharmacy, academics, and physicians), and worked in concert with experts in primary care and implementation to ensure optimal usability. The 2020 guidelines include new guidance on the management of resistant hypertension and the management of hypertension in women planning pregnancy.

Apixaban Concentrations with Lower than Recommended Dosing in Older Adults with Atrial Fibrillation.

OBJECTIVES: Lower than recommended doses of direct-acting oral anticoagulants are often prescribed to older adults with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). Our goal was to determine the consequences of lower than recommended dosing on plasma apixaban concentrations during the clinical care of older adults with NVAF. DESIGN: Convenience sample of patients receiving anticoagulation during 2017. SETTING: Academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Stable adults older than 65 years with NVAF receiving apixaban on a chronic basis. MEASUREMENTS: Patient age, weight, creatinine, co-medications, and apixaban concentrations. RESULTS: A total of 110 older adults with NVAF (mean age = 80.4 y; range = 66-100 y with 45% women) were studied. Overall, 48 patients received recommended dosing of 5 mg twice/day, and 42 received lower than recommended dosing. One patient in each category had concentrations below the expected 5% to 95% range at time of peak concentrations. Differences in proportion of apixaban concentrations within or outside expected ranges were not significant between patients receiving lower than recommended doses and those dosed as recommended at 5 mg twice/day (P = .35). However, in patients dosed as recommended with 5 mg twice/day, four had concentrations above the 5% to 95% range for peak levels expected at 3 to 4 hours after dosing; in two, this occurred around the midpoint of the dosing interval. Twenty patients received 2.5 mg twice/day as recommended. One-third had apixaban concentrations higher than expected peak concentrations compared with the clinical trials, and more than two-thirds had levels above the reported median for peak concentrations. CONCLUSIONS: Apixaban concentrations in older adults with NVAF seen clinically were higher than expected based on clinical trial data. The findings raise questions about the optimal dosing of apixaban in older adults with NVAF encountered outside of clinical trials and suggest a role for the monitoring of apixaban concentrations during care of patients that differ from those in randomized trials or when considering dosing outside of published guidelines. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:1902-1906, 2019.

Sleep Duration and Quality as Related to Left Ventricular Structure and Function.

OBJECTIVE: Inadequate sleep is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events; however, the associations between sleep duration or quality and cardiac function or structure are not well understood. This cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate to what extent sleep duration and quality are associated with left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction or structural deterioration. METHODS: A total of 31,598 healthy Korean adults who received echocardiography and completed the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index were enrolled in this study. Participants were stratified into three groups by self-reported sleep duration (i.e., <7, 7-9, >9 hours) and into two groups by subjective sleep quality. Sleep duration was also assessed as a continuous variable. The odds ratios for impaired LV diastolic function, increased relative wall thickness, and LV hypertrophy (LVH) were compared between groups using multivariable logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: After adjustment for confounding variables (e.g., age, smoking, body mass index), there was a statistically significant association between short sleep duration (<7 hours) and greater LVH (fully adjusted odds ratio = 1.32 [95% confidence interval {CI} = 1.02-1.73]). Short sleep duration was also significantly associated with greater LVH (0.87 per hour [95% CI = 0.78-0.98]) and increased relative wall thickness (0.92 [95% CI = 0.86-0.99]), but there was no significant association between sleep and LV diastolic function. Among individuals with normal sleep duration, poor quality of sleep was not associated with adverse cardiac measures. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that short sleep duration (<7 hours) is associated with unfavorable LV structural characteristics. The association of insufficient sleep with adverse cardiovascular health outcomes may be mediated in part by adverse changes in cardiac structure and function.

Interpatient Variation in Rivaroxaban and Apixaban Plasma Concentrations in Routine Care.

BACKGROUND: Direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are widely prescribed for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). An important advantage of DOACs is that routine monitoring of an anticoagulation response is not necessary. Nevertheless, because of their mechanism of action, a DOAC anticoagulation effect can be inferred based on the observed plasma concentration. However, there is a paucity of data relating to observed interpatient variation in DOAC plasma concentrations in the postmarket clinical setting. METHODS: We determined rivaroxaban and apixaban plasma concentrations in patients with AF during routine clinic visits. RESULTS: Among 243 patients (rivaroxaban, n = 94; apixaban, n = 149) enrolled in this study, a 60- and 50-fold interpatient variation in plasma concentration was observed for rivaroxaban and apixaban, respectively. Approximately 12% of patients receiving rivaroxaban and 13% of patients receiving apixaban exceeded the 95th percentile for predicted maximum plasma concentration observed in clinical trials. CONCLUSIONS: In this routine-care setting, rivaroxaban and apixaban plasma concentrations tended to be more variable than those observed in clinical trials. Identification of additional clinical and molecular determinants that more fully predict patients at risk for excessively high or low DOAC concentrations may enable a more precise DOAC dosing regimen for the individual patient.

The association between insulin resistance and depression in the Korean general population.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies showed that the insulin resistance (IR) could be related to depression. However, this association is still equivocal in the general population. Herein, we aimed to investigate the association between IR and depressive symptoms in a large sample in South Korea. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out for 165,443 Korean men and women who received a health checkup including various clinical parameters and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scales (CES-D). Subjects were stratified into subgroups by CES-D score, sex, age, and presence of diabetes. The odd ratios (ORs) for homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were compared between groups using multivariable logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: After adjusting covariates (e.g. smoking, family income, marriage state, unemployment status, average alcohol use, BMI, physical activity, systolic blood pressure, diabetes), increased IR was weakly associated with greater depressive symptoms (adjusted OR=1.01 [95% CI 1.0001-1.03]). Subgroup analysis revealed this association was statistically significant in females (adjusted OR=1.03, [95% CI 1.001-1.06]), non-diabetic group (adjusted OR=1.04, [95% CI 1.02-1.06]), and young participants under the age of thirty (adjusted OR=1.17, [95% CI 1.07-1.27]). But we couldn't find significant association in diabetic and middle to elderly participants. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that there is a relationship between IR and depressive symptoms in the Korean general population. Results from this epidemiological study revealed that young adults and non-diabetic individuals with increased IR may be related with depressive symptoms.

Pharmacogenetics of Lipid-Lowering Agents: Precision or Indecision Medicine?

Lipid-lowering medications, particularly statins, have been a popular target for pharmacogenetic studies. A handful of genes have shown promise for predicting response to therapy from the perspective of lipid lowering, as well as myopathy. A number of genes have been implicated and have biological plausibility based on their involvement with the pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics of statins or other lipid-lowering medications. The level of confidence and replication of these findings varies, although several associations are likely true. Novel classes of lipid-lowering therapy have opened up new possibilities in the treatment of severe inherited forms of dyslipidemia, making the identification of such mutations an important pharmacogenetic predictor of failure of standard therapy, with potential response to novel therapy. Advances in next-generation sequencing technology bring the application of pharmacogenetics even closer to routine clinical practice.