Women’s Health Conference
We are pleased to invite you to our 11th Annual Womens Health Conference for General Practitioners on Saturday 13th October 2012 in ‘The Scientia Building’, University of New South Wales, Barker St, Randwick.
Please click on the following links for more information and registration.
A new ‘traffic light’ test could make it easier for doctors to diagnose liver disease early on and save lives.
Liver disease develops silently without symptoms, and many people have no idea they have liver failure until it is too late.
A third of people admitted to hospital with end-stage liver disease die within a few months.
Now, a research team from the University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital believe their test will save lives by catching the disease earlier and allowing sufferers to address their behaviour.
The result of the Southampton Traffic Light Test comes in three colours.
Green means that there is no cirrhosis and the patient is highly unlikely to die from liver disease over the next five years.
Amber means there is at least a 50:50 chance of scarring with a significant possibility of death within five years, and patients are advised to stop drinking to avoid further disease and death.
Red means that the patient has liver scarring (fibrosis) and may even have cirrhosis.
Dr Nick Sheron and colleagues tried the test on more than 1,000 patients, with their progress carefully followed and monitored afterwards – in some cases for years – to assess how accurate it was.
The test, although not a substitute for clinical judgement or other liver function tests, was found to be accurate in severe liver disease.
It could provide GPs with an objective means to accurately assess the potential severity of liver fibrosis in high-risk patients such as heavy drinkers, those with type II diabetes, or the obese.
‘We are reliant on general practitioners detecting liver disease in the community so they can intervene to prevent serious liver problems developing, but so far we haven’t been able to give them the tools they need to do this,’ said hepatologist Dr Sheron.
‘We hope that this type of test for liver scarring may start to change this because the earlier we can detect liver disease, the more liver deaths we should be able to prevent.’
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said: ‘One of the challenges of liver disease, which is rising dramatically in this country, is the silent nature of the condition until it is often too late to reverse the damage.
‘However, minor changes in standard liver blood tests are so common that it is difficult for GPs to know when to refer for specialist advice. This large study from Dr Sheron and colleagues in Southampton may prove really useful for guiding the right patients towards specialist care in a timely way.’
Australians with type 2 diabetes are living longer now than 20 years ago but more sufferers are overweight, a landmark study shows.
The 20-year analysis of Australians with type 2 diabetes revealed they had lower blood glucose and bad cholesterol levels compared to the 1990s.
‘This is the first Australian research to show that blood sugar control is improving in patients with type 2 diabetes,’ head of the Fremantle Diabetes Study Professor Tim Davis said.
‘Unfortunately our data also reveals that the average Body Mass Index for a person with diabetes is now in the obese category.’
Data from the study showed that compared to diabetes patients treated between 1993 to 1996, those treated between 2008 to 2011 had lower average blood glucose levels, lower bad cholesterol levels, lived longer, but were more overweight.
‘These changes are highly significant,’ Prof Davis told an annual diabetes conference this week.
‘The benefits of early diagnosis and more intensive treatment of both blood glucose and cholesterol levels is paying dividends.
‘Diabetes patients are living longer and this suggests that they are suffering fewer heart attacks and strokes.’
Laverty pathology 