Perinatal factors associated with subsequent diabetes mellitus in the child: record linkage study

WSTĘP. W niniejszej pracy przedstawiono raport dotyczący związku między czynnikami okołoporodowymi a późniejszą cukrzycą u potomstwa przed ukończeniem 30. roku życia. MATERIAŁ I METODY. Analizie poddano sprzężone szpitalne dane statystyczne, porównując czynniki okołoporodowe u 518 osób przyjętych do szpitala z powodu cukrzycy z takimi samymi czynnikami u 292 845 innych chorych w określonej populacji, w południowej Anglii w latach 1963-1999. WYNIKI. Cukrzyca występowała znacznie częściej u dzieci matek chorych na cukrzycę niż u innych (OR: 6,42; 95% CI: 4,18-9,86). Nie stwierdzono znamiennego związku z masą urodzeniową lub wiekiem ciążowym oddzielnie. Cukrzyca występowała częściej u osób w wyższym kwintylu masy urodzeniowej dla wieku ciążowego w porównaniu z połączonymi najniższymi 4 kwintylami (OR: 1,33; 95% CI: 1,08-1,64), jednak nie stwierdzono zgodnego gradientu rosnącej częstości występowania cukrzycy w najniższych 4 kwintylach. Nie dowiedziono znamiennego związku między cukrzycą a wiekiem matki, liczbą porodów, statusem społecznym, paleniem tytoniu w ciąży, sposobem porodu lub jakimkolwiek innym badanym czynnikiem okołoporodowym. Wszystkie wyniki były podobne, gdy analizę ograniczono do chorych na cukrzycę w wieku poniżej 15 lat. WNIOSKI. Wykazano silny związek między występowaniem cukrzycy u dzieci - głównie, jeśli nie całkowicie, typu 1 - a stwierdzeniem tej choroby u matek. Cukrzyca występowała nieznacznie częściej w najcięższym kwintylu masy urodzeniowej dla wieku ciążowego niż w innych kwintylach. Nie zaobserwowano znamiennego związku między występowaniem cukrzycy a innymi badanymi czynnikami okołoporodowymi.AIMS. To report on associations between perinatal factors and the subsequent development of diabetes mellitus under the age of 30 years in the offspring. METHODS. Analysis of linked hospital statistical records, comparing perinatal factors relating to the birth of 518 people admitted to hospital for diabetes with the same factors in 292 845 others, in a defined population in southern England from 1963 to 1999. RESULTS. Diabetes mellitus was much more common in children of mothers with diabetes than in others (OR: 6.42; 95% CI: 4.18&#8211;9.86). There was no significant association with birthweight or gestational age separately. Diabetes was more common in those in the highest quintile of 'birthweight for gestational age' compared with the lowest four quintiles combined (OR: 1.33; 95% CI: 1.08-1.64), but there was no consistent gradient of increasing frequency of diabetes across the lowest four quintiles. There were no significant associations between diabetes and mothers' age, parity, social class, or smoking during pregnancy, or between babies' mode of delivery or any other perinatal factors investigated. All results were similar when the analysis was confined to diabetes in people aged < 15 years. CONCLUSIONS. We found a strong association between diabetes in the child - mainly, if not entirely type 1 diabetes - and maternal diabetes. Diabetes was slightly more common in the heaviest quintile of birthweight for gestational age than in other quintiles. There were no significant associations between diabetes and the other perinatal factors studied

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Benign breast disease and subsequent breast cancer: English record linkage studies

BACKGROUND: Benign breast disease (BBD) increases the risk of breast cancer, but details of the relationship would benefit from further study in the UK. METHODS: Analysis of linked statistical abstracts of hospital data, including a cohort of 20 976 women with BBD in an Oxford data set and 89 268 such women in an English national data set. RESULTS: Rate ratios (RRs) for breast cancer, comparing BBD and comparison cohorts in these two data sets, were 2.3 (95% CI: 2.2-2.5) and 3.2 (3.0-3.3), respectively. RRs rose with increasing age at BBD diagnosis and remained elevated for at least 20 years after diagnosis. RRs were particularly high for a relatively small number of cancers occurring in the first few months after BBD diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings accord well with those in other large studies, mostly done in the USA, in showing a sustained long-term cancer risk after BBD. They also demonstrate that known long-term risks of disease can be reliably identified from linked routine administrative hospital statistics. Most other studies omit cancers in the first few months after BBD. Such cases-presumably either misdiagnosed or miscoded-merit further study to determine whether in fact they include diagnoses of cancer that were initially missed

Science in the news: a diachronic perspective

In this paper, I analyse the changing rhetorical role of science in UK broadsheet newspapers from 1993 and 2005, and conclude that there have been noteworthy changes. First, science, and more specifically, the formulation the science, is increasingly employed as a model of authority, appealing to ethos rather than logos; the authority is asserted but relatively rarely justified, and this may be considered the most significant change in that it drives several others. At the same time, there has been a popularisation of the science in the newspapers as it becomes an ‘add on’ to popular stories. Furthermore, there is evidence that science is being progressively fitted into the news story format, which demands recency as a news value, as opposed to features-style reports. Finally, science appears to have shifted from its earlier place in opposition to art and culture, to a paradigm in which its primary alter, or opposition, is religion