Health Rounds: Sound waves promote healing of diabetic foot ulcers

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(This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) -High-energy sound waves can stimulate healing in patients with diabetes whose chronic foot wounds don’t respond to standard therapies, a team of Spanish researchers found.

Data pooled from five earlier randomized trials showed that patients were nearly three times more likely to see their wounds heal completely when so-called extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) was added to standard care, according to a report in Medical Sciences.

ESWT uses acoustic energy to stimulate growth of new blood vessels, help tissues regenerate, and reduce inflammation and scarring. The treatments are usually outpatient procedures, done without anesthesia.

All 672 patients in the trials received standard wound care, including 336 who additionally received ESWT for periods ranging from 3 to 20 weeks.

Non-healing foot ulcers are a common and serious complication of diabetes, affecting about 463 million people globally. Up to 40% of patients may need amputation.

“This therapy represents a promising advance in the management of a diabetic complication that is often difficult to treat and has a significant impact on a patient’s quality of life,” the researchers said.

VIRAL INFECTIONS BOOST RISKS OF HEART DISEASE AND STROKE

Risks for heart disease and stroke are higher after infection with the viruses that cause influenza, COVID-19, shingles, hepatitis C, and HIV, a new report confirms.

Decades of data from 155 studies on links between viral infections and cardiovascular disease show the increased risks are not limited to the immediate period after infection but can persist for years.

Some viral infections appear to carry a higher risk than others, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

People with influenza were four times more likely to have a heart attack and five times more likely to suffer a stroke during the following month compared to healthy individuals.

COVID-19 patients were three times more likely than uninfected individuals to have a heart attack or stroke during the 14 weeks after infection, with increased risks lasting up to a year.

Risks for new heart problems due to clogged coronary arteries were 60% higher after HIV infection, 27% higher after hepatitis C infection, and 12% higher after herpes zoster, or shingles.

Risks for stroke were 45% higher with HIV, 23% higher with hepatitis C and 18% higher after shingles.

Cardiovascular risks related to shingles remained elevated for up to 10 years.

“Shingles affects about one in three people in their lifetime,” study leader Dr. Kosuke Kawai from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA said in a statement. “Therefore, the elevated risk associated with that virus translates into a large number of excess cases of cardiovascular disease at the population level.”

Viruses interfere with normal blood vessel function, cause inflammation, and make blood more prone to clotting, all of which raise the risk of heart attack and stroke, the researchers noted.

“Preventive measures against viral infections, including vaccination, may play an important role in decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease,” Kawai said.

“Prevention is especially important for adults who already have cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular disease risk factors,” he said.

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(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)