Month: November 2010

Giving doctors frequent phone updates about heart failure patients did not help to keep them alive or out of the hospital, a new study has found. The results conflicted with prior small studies that found “telemonitoring” did help people. The study included 1,653 people who had a recent hospital stay for heart failure. All of them had poorly controlled blood pressure. They were randomly assigned to the phone program or just their usual care. People in the phone program were told to call the system every day. They reported their weight, blood pressure and symptoms. Doctors could change their medicines or take other actions as needed. In the next 6 months, about half of each group either died or had to go back in the hospital. The study was presented at a conference. Reuters Health news service wrote about it November 16.

People infected with HIV can safely receive kidney transplants, says a study. About 3 in 10 people with HIV develop kidney disease. Until recently, they could not receive kidney transplants. Transplant patients must take drugs that suppress the immune system. HIV-infected people already have a weakened immune system, so transplants were considered risky. The study followed 150 people. Transplant failure rates were two to three times higher than in the general population. But three years after surgery, three-fourths of the transplants were still functioning. The study appears in the Nov 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.