News in brief - Aug. 14, 2006

Celiac awareness campaign launched - Detecting a serious sickle cell disease complication - Stopping the attack on insulin-producing cells

Celiac awareness campaign launched

The National Institutes of Health has launched a campaign to heighten awareness of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food. Resources are available for physicians and others online (www.celiac.nih.gov).

Celiac disease affects nearly 1% of the U.S. population and remains underdiagnosed, said Griffin P. Rodgers, MD, acting director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. "Through the campaign, we hope to increase physician awareness of the disease, resulting in earlier diagnosis and better outcomes for celiac patients."

People with celiac react to ingesting gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley, with symptoms that include diarrhea, delayed growth, infertility and osteoporosis. Treatment is adherence to a gluten-free diet.

"One of the challenges with celiac disease is the vast array of symptoms associated with the disease," said Stephen P. James, MD, director of the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition at the NIDDK. "We are hoping to educate health professionals and the public that celiac disease is not only a gastrointestinal disease."

Detecting a serious sickle cell disease complication

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute researchers have found that the hormone known as brain natriuretic peptide -- BNP, which can be detected by a simple blood test, can identify patients with sickle cell disease who have developed pulmonary hypertension. The same hormone was determined to be a clear predictor of death in adult sickle cell patients.

BNP is released by the heart ventricles and is also used as a predictor of death in heart failure patients. The new study was published in the July 19 Journal of the American Medical Association.

About 30% of sickle cell patients have pulmonary hypertension, which often leads to heart failure and is a major risk factor for death in adults with this disease. Currently, echocardiograms and other heart tests are used to diagnose the condition but there has not been a blood test to help detect it.

Stopping the attack on insulin-producing cells

Eighteen medical centers in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia have begun a variety of new clinical trials in type 1 diabetes in which they will seek to slow or stop the immune system's attack on insulin-producing cells in two groups of people: those newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and those at risk for developing it. The studies are being funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The immune destruction of beta cells begins well before a person develops the symptoms of diabetes and continues long after the disease is diagnosed. Researchers hope to prevent further destruction of beta cells in those who are newly diagnosed. Another study in the trial is seeking to "turn off" the cells that are thought to urge the immune cells on in their attack on insulin-producing cells. More information is available online (www.diabetestrialnet.org).