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<recommendedContent xmlns="http://api.mspoke.com">
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_454"
                     title="Glaucoma Meds Linked to Lower Mortality Risk (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.011"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Ophthalmology/Glaucoma/tb/18371?impressionId=1265819206027"
                     
      For patients diagnosed with glaucoma, taking medications for the condition appears to improve survival, researchers found.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Patients with suspected or confirmed glaucoma were 74% less likely to die during a five-year period if they were prescribed any glaucoma medication (HR 0.26, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.40), according to Joshua Stein, MD, of the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center in Ann Arbor, and colleagues.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;However, in an analysis of patients with suspected glaucoma only, the association was no longer significant (HR 1.19, 95% CI 0.43 to 3.27), the researchers reported in the February issue of the &lt;em&gt;Archives of Ophthalmology&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&quot;Additional studies need to be done to try to sort out exactly why the patients who have diagnosed glaucoma tend to have reduced mortality relative to the other patients who are not being treated,&quot; Stein told &lt;em&gt;MedPage Today&lt;/em&gt;, adding that changes in clinical management should not be made until this is sorted out.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Previous studies of glaucoma and mortality have yielded conflicting results. Few have examined the effect of glaucoma medications, which can be absorbed systemically and affect the body in ways that may confound such analyses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So Stein and his colleagues looked at data from a large managed care network involving 21,506 patients 40 and older with suspected or confirmed glaucoma.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About half (50.5%) had suspected glaucoma and the rest had received a definite diagnosis, most commonly open-angle glaucoma (21.5%).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Comorbidities were common: 52.7% of the patients had hypertension and 41.3% had diabetes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From 2003 through 2007, 28.1% of the patients filled a prescription for a glaucoma medication. The most frequently prescribed drugs were prostaglandin analogues (20.8%) and beta-antagonists (12.8%).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;More than a quarter (28%) were also prescribed oral beta-blockers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During the study, 1.1% of the patients died.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The overall reduction in risk of death during the study held for both single agents  --  topical beta-antagonists (HR 0.40, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.86) and prostaglandin analogues (HR 0.27, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.52),&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;as well as for combinations of glaucoma medications.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The mortality risk declined as the number of prescribed medications increased (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.001). The hazard ratios for one, two, and three or more medications were 0.29, 0.19, and 0.12, respectively.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Among those with the most common diagnosis, open-angle glaucoma, the risk of dying during the study was reduced by a relative 77% for those prescribed at least one medication (HR 0.23, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.37).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is unclear why glaucoma medication use is associated with a lower mortality risk, but it is possible that topical medications absorbed systemically could affect blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, and kidney function, Stein said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;But the fact that multiple different medication classes are showing this protective effect suggests to me that it may not necessarily be the medications themselves, but perhaps it&apos;s the types of patients who are receiving the medications,&quot; he said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The patients taking medication for glaucoma might be healthier than the untreated patients, he said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Those with more serious conditions might have to selectively choose which drugs they buy, and might purchase medications for more serious conditions than glaucoma.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Also, physicians treating patients with more serious conditions might not focus on glaucoma, Stein said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A final possibility might be differences in the beneficiaries&apos; access to healthcare.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The authors noted a number of limitations of the study: &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;The use of claims data, and not patient records, resulted in missing information on some important clinical variables&lt;strong&gt;,&lt;/strong&gt; such as smoking, body weight, blood pressure.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;The results are not necessarily generalizable beyond the insured patients in this single, managed care network.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Death status could not be verified and cause of death could not be determined because of the use of de-identified data.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;It is unclear whether patients actually took the prescribed medications.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;The relationship between certain drug classes and mortality risk could not be determined because of low patient numbers.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The authors did not make any financial disclosures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_442"
                     title="Most Mountaineers Can Enjoy the View (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.011"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Ophthalmology/GeneralOphthalmology/tb/18359?impressionId=1265819206027"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Although the vistas from some of the world&apos;s highest peaks are literally &quot;eye-popping,&quot; most climbers don&apos;t have to worry about their high-altitude vision.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Corneal thickness did swell significantly among mountaineers at elevations up to 6,300 meters (about 21,000 feet), but they had no loss in visual acuity, Martina Monika Bosch, MD, of University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland, and colleagues reported in the February &lt;em&gt;Archives of Ophthalmology&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;It seems that visual acuity in healthy corneas is not adversely affected despite the presence of edema at altitudes up to 6,300 meters,&quot; the researchers wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yet they warned that altitudes above 8,000 meters, or 26,000 feet, &quot;may result in profuse edema leading to dangerous visual loss.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mt. Everest is just over 29,000 feet high.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Research has shown that hypobaric atmospheric conditions are linked to acute mountain sickness, as well as to the more unusual cerebral edema.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;High altitudes have also been associated with decreases in visual acuity, as was the case for Dr. Beck Weathers, a Mount Everest climber who had lasik surgery prior to his climb and experienced severe vision loss before reaching the summit.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, to investigate the effects of very high altitudes on corneal thickness, the researchers conducted a study of 28 healthy mountaineers ages 26 to 62, who were on a medical research expedition to Mount Muztagh Ata in China, an elevation of 24,757 feet.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The climbers were randomly assigned to two groups: one had a shorter time to acclimate to altitude conditions prior to reaching a camp at 21,736 feet.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers measured corneal thickness via ultrasound pachymetry.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They found that corneal thickness increased in both groups at higher altitudes, with shorter acclimatization times leading to greater differences (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.048). For this group, mean corneal thickness increased from 537 mcm to 572 mcm.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Corneal thickness in the group that had more time to acclimate rose from 534 mcm to 563 mcm.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Visual acuity didn&apos;t significantly decrease during the course of the expedition. However, the researchers warned that higher altitudes induce more endothelial pump function failure and may result in profuse edema, leading to vision loss.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While the cause of corneal swelling in hypoxic conditions is still controversial, the researchers suggested that a higher concentration of lactate may reduce activity of the eye&apos;s endothelial pump function, resulting in corneal swelling.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There were no differences in mountain sickness between the groups, but oxygen saturation during the expedition was significantly lower than at baseline in both.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Changes in oxygen saturation paralleled those of corneal thickness, the researchers said, indicating that slower acclimatization resulted in less corneal edema.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Also, climbers with more acute mountain sickness had thicker corneas, possibly due to their higher overall susceptibility to hypoxia.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;These findings further support our hypothesis that blood oxygen saturation becomes more important for the endothelial pump function when environmental oxygen pressure and, thus, tear film oxygen saturation, is reduced to a critical level,&quot; they wrote. &quot;Our results thus highlight the importance of aqueous humor oxygen delivery.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The study was limited by the inability to measure corneal thickness daily due to adverse weather conditions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was supported by grants from the Swiss National Research Science Foundation, the Swiss Society of Mountain Medicine, and Pfizer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers reported no conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_474"
                     title="Denosumab Shows Promise in Rare Bone Tumor (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.01"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/OtherCancers/tb/18407?impressionId=1265819206027"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;An investigational drug aimed at osteoporosis appears to be of benefit in treating a rare bone tumor, researchers said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a small, single-arm, open-label study, 86% of patients with giant-cell tumor of bone had a response to denosumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody, according to David Thomas, MBBS, PhD, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Currently, surgery is the definitive therapy, but the finding warrants more investigation of denosumab as a systemic treatment for the disease, Thomas and colleagues said online in &lt;em&gt;The Lancet Oncology&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, the finding was described as a &quot;breakthrough&quot; by Maurice Balke, MD, of the University of Witten-Herdecke in Cologne, Germany, and Jendrik Hardes, MD, of University Hospital Muenster in Muenster, Germany.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;This is the first report that clearly shows a promising systemic treatment option for this rare type of tumor,&quot; they wrote in an accompanying editorial in the journal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;More study is needed to tease out the mechanism involved, they said, as well as to see how long the effect lasts and whether the drug is effective in a broader population with the disease.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But the study &quot;might change clinical practice&quot; in the treatment of the disease, they concluded.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Giant-cell tumor of bone accounts for about 4% of primary bone tumors and about 18% of benign bone tumors. About 80% of patients with primary giant-cell tumors have disease that&apos;s amenable to resection, the researchers noted in the journal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The tumors consist of sheets of neoplastic ovoid mononuclear cells evenly interspersed with osteoclast-like giant cells. The giant cells and their precursors express the protein RANK, and some of the mononuclear cells express RANK ligand (or RANKL).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since denosumab inhibits RANKL, the researchers hypothesized, it might block bone destruction and eliminate the giant cells.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To test the idea, they enrolled 37 patients with recurrent or unresectable disease and gave them subcutaneous denosumab (at 120 milligrams every 28 days, with loading doses on days eight and 15 of the first month).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The primary endpoint was tumor response, defined as either elimination of at least 90% of the giant cells or no radiological progression of the target lesion up to week 25.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After 25 weeks of treatment, two patients couldn&apos;t be evaluated because they lacked adequate histologic or radiologic data, the researchers said, but 30 of the remaining 35 had a response.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Specifically, all of the 20 patients with histologic data showed at least a 90% reduction in giant cells from baseline. And 10 of the 15 patients assessed by radiology did not have progression of the lesion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The most common adverse event was pain in an extremity, followed by back pain and headache, Thomas and colleagues said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Five patients had grade three through five adverse events, but only one (a grade three increase in human chorionic gonadotropin concentration not related to pregnancy) was thought to be possibly associated with treatment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As well, there were five serious adverse events but none was deemed to be related to the drug.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thomas and colleagues said the study is limited by its small sample size (from a select population with recurrent or unresectable disease), the short study duration, and the single group study design.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was supported by Amgen Inc. Thomas reported financial links with Amgen, Pfizer, and Novartis, as well as a fellowship from the Victorian Cancer Agency. Several authors reported being employees of or holding equity in Amgen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The editorial authors said they had no conflicts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_473"
                     title="AAN: High Intake of Vitamin D Linked to Lower MS Risk (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.01"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AAN/tb/18406?impressionId=1265819206027"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;TORONTO  --  Women whose mothers consumed high levels of vitamin D during pregnancy have a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis, a large, observational study confirmed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mothers who reported the highest intake during pregnancy were 45% less likely to have a daughter who subsequently developed the disease than those who consumed the least vitamin D (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.88), according to Fariba Mirzaei, MD, MPH, a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mirzaei is scheduled to report the findings at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) meeting in April.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lily Jung, MD, a neurologist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, said in an interview that the study &quot;adds more fuel to the fire that low vitamin D is important in the genesis of MS,&quot; which has been demonstrated in previous studies. (See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/MultipleSclerosis/4738&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/MultipleSclerosis/4738&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;High Blood Levels of Vitamin D May Lower MS Risk&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;She said it&apos;s unclear why vitamin D is associated with risk of multiple sclerosis.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;There&apos;s an idea that perhaps there might be receptors that are turned on by vitamin D levels that give some form of protection, but that is very preliminary information and we&apos;re still learning a lot about that,&quot; said Jung, who is also a spokeswoman for the AAN.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although the link between vitamin D and risk of multiple sclerosis has been demonstrated before, gestational exposure to the vitamin has not been studied.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To fill that gap, Mirzaei analyzed data from the Nurses&apos; Mothers&apos; Study, which includes a subcohort of the two Nurses&apos; Health Studies that was restricted to nurses whose biological mothers completed a questionnaire in 2001 about their diet during pregnancy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The current analysis included 35,794 nurse-mother pairs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During the 16-year study period, 199 of the nurses were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In addition to a lower risk of disease among those whose mothers consumed the largest amounts of vitamin D, those whose mothers had the highest predicted serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels also had a reduced risk of having a daughter with the disease (RR 0.58, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.90).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In an analysis of milk drinking alone, mothers who drank at least four glasses a day had a nonsignificant reduced risk of having a daughter who would develop multiple sclerosis compared with those who drank less than three glasses a month (RR 0.44, 95% CI 0.16 to 1.23).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, there was a significant trend for lower risk of multiple sclerosis with increasing milk consumption (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.001).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jung noted that the study was limited by the use of questionnaires decades after a pregnancy to determine dietary intake of vitamin D.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, she said, &quot;this is very consistent with what we&apos;re seeing elsewhere in terms of vitamin D in moms and the risk of MS in kids.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mirzaei did not make any financial disclosures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_472"
                     title="Test Allows LMW Heparin Monitoring in Cath Lab (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.01"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/PCI/tb/18403?impressionId=1265819206027"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;A novel point-of-care anticoagulation test not yet available in the U.S. allowed more accurate dosing of enoxaparin (Lovenox) prior to cardiac catheterization in a clinical trial, researchers said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Patients in whom anticoagulation was insufficient with standard enoxaparin doses were identified with the Hemochron Jr. Hemonox test at a sensitivity of 94.9% (95% CI 91.1% to 97.4%) and specificity of 73.3% (95% CI 67.6% to 78.5%), allowing for needed dosage adjustments before undergoing catheterization and coronary revascularization, reported Johanne Silvain, MD, of Piti&amp;#233;-Salp&amp;#234;tri&amp;#232;re Hospital in Paris, and colleagues.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;In daily practice, the Hemonox test may be used in the catheterization laboratory to assess the appropriate level of anticoagulation therapy in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention and to avoid the use of unfractionated heparin in addition to enoxaparin, as is still done by some interventionists,&quot; the researchers wrote in the Feb. 16 &lt;em&gt;Journal of the American College of Cardiology&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Normally, anticoagulant therapy is started in patients scheduled for catheterization to minimize the risk that the procedure will trigger a thrombotic event.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Silvain and colleagues explained that low molecular weight heparins such as enoxaparin appear to be safer and at least as effective as unfractionated heparin, but are not widely used.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The inability to rapidly monitor the anticoagulant effect of enoxaparin in a similar fashion as the activated clotting time with unfractionated heparin has limited the use of enoxaparin in interventional cardiac procedures,&quot; they wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Past clinical studies have found that most but not all patients achieve target levels of anticoagulation using standard doses of enoxaparin, Silvain and colleagues noted. Excessive anticoagulation increases risk of bleeding, whereas shortfalls raise the likelihood of periprocedural&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, and stroke.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to Silvain and colleagues, there are currently no good ways to measure the adequacy of enoxaparin dosing at bedside. Activated clotting time is too imprecise with enoxaparin, and chromogenic anti-factor Xa activity requires a laboratory-performed assay, they wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They evaluated the Hemonox test in 296 unselected patients undergoing catheterization because of cardiac symptoms, of whom 169 went on to percutaneous revascularization or bypass graft surgery.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Hemonox test delivers results as a clotting time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Enoxaparin was given intravenously in 211 patients, in combination with subcutaneous enoxaparin in 21, only subcutaneously to 64 patients, and the route was unrecorded in the remaining 14.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Blood samples were drawn immediately after sheath insertion and again 10 minutes later. Samples were tested with Hemonox, a standard assay for activated partial thromboplastin time, and the lab assay for anti-factor Xa activity. The latter served as the &quot;gold standard&quot; reference in the study.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Insufficient anticoagulation  --  defined as an anti-factor Xa level of less than 0.5 IU/mL  --  was found in 14 patients at the second blood draw. Excessive anticoagulation occurred in only three patients, all of whom had anti-factor Xa levels of 1.9 IU/mL (upper level cutoff 1.8 IU/mL).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Silvain and colleagues found that the area below the receiver operating characteristic curve for the Hemonox test, for discriminating those individuals with inadequate anticoagulation, was 0.95 relative to the anti-factor Xa assay (95% CI 0.93 to 0.97).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Using a cutoff of 120 seconds for the Hemonox clotting time to identify inadequate anticoagulation, which maximizes the sensitivity, the results produced a positive predictive value of 73.9% (95% CI 68.7% to 79.0%) and a negative predictive value of 94.8% (95% CI 91.8% to 97.8%).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A cutoff of 80 seconds reversed the Hemonox test&apos;s performance almost exactly  --  it produced a sensitivity for detecting inadequate anticoagulation of 74.5% and a specificity of 98.5%. Silvain and colleagues explained that, in patients undergoing interventional procedures, &quot;the sensitivity of the bedside test is critical.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Activated partial thromboplastin time correlated much more poorly with anti-factor Xa results, the researchers said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Hemonox results paralleled those of the anti-factor Xa assay in important subgroups, including obese patients and the elderly, the researchers reported.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Two major bleeding events were observed in the study, both in patients with anti-factor Xa levels well within the target range.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Silvain and colleagues noted that the lack of clinical outcomes as a study endpoint was a limitation, as was the lack of sufficient data to assess the Hemonox test&apos;s effectiveness in measuring excessive anticoagulation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was funded by International Technidyne Corp., which developed the anticoagulation test.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Study authors reported relationships other than research funding with Pfizer, sanofi-aventis, Astellas, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, The Medicines Company, Schering-Plough, Merck Sharpe &amp;amp; Dohme, Cordis, and GlaxoSmithKline. They also reported research funding from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly, sanofi-aventis, Eli Lilly, Guerbet Medical, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Cordis, Stago, and Centocor.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
</recommendedContent>