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By Nancy Lapid, Health Science Editor

Hello Health Rounds readers! Today we have good news for people who need pacemakers to keep their tickers beating properly. Abbott Laboratories has developed pill-size wireless pacemakers that may soon take the place of batteries under the skin and wires in the heart. We also feature a study that found inexpensive screening for kidney disease could save tens of billions of dollars a year if patients take a newer class of diabetes medicine that is also kidney protective. Plus, a new analysis cautions that marijuana users may be more prone to limb artery narrowing.   

In breaking news, see these stories from our Reuters journalists: WHO ‘overstretched’ in response to increasing health emergencies; Cholera vaccine shortage to last until 2025 as cases surge; and Amputees could feel warmth of human touch with new bionic technology.

Our industry news stories include reports on the Amgen/J&J patent lawsuit; Vivus and Curax weight-loss pill plans; Opiant‘s spray for opioid overdoses; Novo Nordisk, Pfizer weight-loss pills compared to shots; Ironwood’s $1.15 bln purchase of VectivBio; Walgreens’ fight to avoid $642 mln award to Humana; Oculis‘ eye drug; Dechra’s profit warning; Sanofi’s smoker’s lung drug; and Intercept’s fatty liver drug.

With availability of drugs known as SGLT2 inhibitors that slow the progression of kidney disease, such as Jardiance from Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim, it has become cost-effective to screen all U.S. adults for the condition, a new analysis found. REUTERS/George Frey.

Pacemakers with wires extending into the heart and batteries under the skin may become obsolete as a new type of wireless pacemaker system developed by Abbott Laboratories can be used in far more patients than previously possible.

Researchers reported their findings on Saturday at the annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society in New Orleans.

Currently available wireless pacemakers can only be placed in one chamber of the heart, the ventricle. But roughly 80% of patients who require a pacemaker need it to work in both the atrium and the ventricle, the researchers said.

“Before now, that wasn’t possible as it is very complicated to place two mini pacemakers that can communicate with each other wirelessly,” study leader Dr. Reinoud Knops of Amsterdam University Medical Centers said in a statement.

Traditional pacemakers consist of a box under the skin near the collarbone, with a wire running through a vein into the heart. These wires, or leads, are fragile and can break, become detached from the heart, or become infected.

The new Abbott system consists of two vitamin pill-sized pacemakers – one in the atrium and one in the ventricle – that communicate with each other via electrical pulses.

The new pacemakers, tested in 300 patients, were safe and worked well for three months or longer, the researchers said. The results were also published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Abbott expects its Dual Leadless Mini Pacemaker to be approved later this year in the United States and early next year in Europe.

With newer drugs available that slow progression of kidney disease, it would now be cost-effective to screen for the condition in U.S. adults, according to an analysis published on Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Drugs from a class known as SGLT2 inhibitors used to treat type 2 diabetes, such as Jardiance from Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim, and AstraZeneca’s Farxiga, have also shown an ability to keep kidney dysfunction from worsening – not just in these patients but also in those with chronic kidney disease (CKD) without diabetes.

Overall, about 15% of U.S. adults have CKD, which usually isn’t diagnosed until it becomes advanced. Currently, Medicare spends $87 billion annually on care for late-stage CKD and an additional $37 billion for care of patients with kidney failure requiring transplants, according to the authors of the report.

Their computer models showed that screening for silent kidney disease using urine samples would increase life expectancy and prevent kidney failure requiring dialysis in 398,000 to 658,000 people over their lifetimes, depending on how often screening was performed.

“In contrast to studies done before the introduction of SGLT2 inhibitors, we found that both one-time and periodic screening for CKD represent good value in every age group when SGLT2 inhibitors are included in treatment,” the researchers wrote.

When drugs for high blood pressure are included in treatment along with SGLT2 inhibitors, screening then becomes cost-effective for the general U.S. population aged 35 years or older, they said.

Marijuana users may be at higher risk for narrowed arteries in their limbs, a new analysis suggests.

The findings are drawn from U.S. hospital data on 30 million patients, including 623,768 marijuana users. Compared to nonusers, the marijuana users were more than three times more likely to have so-called peripheral artery disease (PAD), researchers reported on Thursday at the annual meeting of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions in Phoenix.

The researchers did not say whether duration or intensity of marijuana use had an impact on PAD risk.

In PAD, narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to the arms or legs. Untreated, it can lead to loss of mobility, reduced quality of life, heart attack, stroke and death.

Overall, roughly 6.5 million U.S. adults have PAD, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“With the increase in marijuana use in the U.S., our findings show that users should be aware of the symptoms of PAD such as leg pain while walking, slower or no hair growth and feelings of coldness in the leg,” study leader Dr. Hirva Vyas of Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey said in a statement. 

This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot.

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