Digitising diabetes education for a safer Ramadan: Design, delivery, and evaluation of massive open online courses in Ramadan-focused diabetes education.

Aims: Ramadan-focused diabetes education is critical to facilitate safer Ramadan fasting amongst Muslim people living with diabetes. We present the design, delivery, and evaluation of two parallel massive open online courses (MOOCs) in Ramadan-focused diabetes education for people with diabetes and HCPs.

Methods: Two Ramadan-focused diabetes education MOOCs were developed and delivered for Ramadan 2023: one for HCPs in English, and another for people with diabetes in English, Arabic and Malay.

PPARγ Agonistic Activity of Sulphonylureas.

Background: Sulphonylureas (SU) are known to cause weight gain. Some investigators have reported increased insulin sensitivity with some sulphonylurea agents.

Objective: To review available evidence of SU agents having PPARγ agonist activity.

Intravascular ultrasound assessment of cobalt chromium versus stainless steel drug-eluting stent expansion.

It is not clear whether the thin struts and different alloy of a cobalt chromium stent will cause greater acute stent recoil compared to conventional stainless steel stents. We used postintervention intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) examinations to study 99 patients with 116 stented lesions: 61 Xience/Promus stents (cobalt chromium stent group) and 27 Taxus Liberté and 28 Cypher stents (stainless steel stent group). The IVUS images were obtained before and immediately after stent implantation with only the stent-delivery balloon.

Serial intravascular ultrasound analysis of the impact of myocardial bridge on neointimal proliferation after coronary stenting in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Mechanisms underlying the association between myocardial bridge (MB)-stenting and in-stent restenosis (ISR) are still unclear.

Objective: To assess the impact of MB on ISR using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).

Methods: In the Harmonizing Outcomes with Revascularization and Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction (HORIZONS-AMI) trial, 100 left anterior descending artery (LAD) culprit lesions (79 treated with paclitaxel-eluting stents [PES] and 21 treated with bare metal stents) were imaged with serial IVUS immediately postprocedure and at 13 months.

Effects of beta-adrenoceptor antagonists on the pharmacokinetics of lignocaine.

In theory, beta-adrenoceptor antagonists could lower the clearance of free lignocaine in three ways (a) by decreasing hepatic blood flow, (b) by competing for plasma binding sites or (c) by inhibiting the enzymes responsible for metabolising lignocaine. The first mechanism has been demonstrated for propranolol and is probably common to all agents lacking intrinsic sympathomimetic activity. The second mechanism is discounted by data showing that propranolol, one of the more highly bound beta-adrenoceptor antagonists, does not alter the free fraction of lignocaine in plasma.