NEWS
Medicaid Hits a New High
According to a recent government report ,
Pumping Iron
Patients with chronic kidney disease ( CKD ) and iron deficiency have high risks of death and cardiovascular events , even among those without anemia , suggesting a possible anemia-independent association of iron stores and outcomes .
To study this relationship , researchers evaluated risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in patients with iron deficiency , defined as low levels of transferrin saturation ( TSAT ).
9.9 MILLION AMERICANS
Compared to patients with TSAT 26-35 %, patients with TSAT ≤15 % had a : enrolled in Medicaid since February 2020 , with a record 80 million people – one-quarter of the population – covered under the public health program .
This represents a 14 % increase compared with the 12-month period ending January 31 , 2020 , which follows a 3-year decline in enrollment .
Adult enrollment in Medicaid grew twice as fast as child enrollment , suggesting that job losses related to the public health crisis may have left many adults newly eligible for the program .
44 % higher risk of all-cause mortality
Source : The New York Times , June 21 , 2021 .
It ’ s a Family Affair
Results from a large twin study suggest that there is a familial risk for hematologic malignancies .
The Nordic Twin study included more than 316,000 individual twins who were followed for a median of 41 years .
The lifetime risk for any hematologic malignancy was 2.5 %
77 % higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events
Risk when fraternal twin was diagnosed : 4.5 %
Risk when identical twin was diagnosed : 7.6 %
“ The discovery of decreasing familial predisposition with increasing age underscores the importance of cancer surveillance in families with hematological malignancies ,” the researchers concluded .
The findings suggest that all patients with CKD would benefit from iron supplementation to manage deficiency , not simply treatment of its erythropoietic effects , the authors concluded .
Source : Guedes M , Muenz DG , Zee J , et al . Serum biomarkers of iron stores are associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in nondialysis CKD patients , with or without anemia [ published online ahead of print , 2021 Jul 8 ]. J Am Soc Nephrol . doi : 10.1681 / ASN . 2020101531 .
Source : Clemmensen SB , Harris JR , Mengel-From J , et al . Familial risk and heritability of hematologic malignancies in the Nordic Twin Study of cancer . Cancers . 2021 ; 13 ( 12 ): 3023 .
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