When you tell a patient her hemoglobin A1c result is 8%, how does she relate that number to the blood glucose levels she measures at home in units of mg/dL? Is an A1c of 8% equivalent to an average glucose of 180?

As if diabetes management isn't complicated enough, dealing with different types of blood glucose measures can make it more so.

Washington -- Although most roads to pandemic flu readiness remain riddled with potholes, some communities are making steady progress.

Those cities and towns that have made exemplary advances in planning for a surge of ill patients and ways to mitigate the flu's potential devastation were honored, and the lessons they learned were shared during the Second National Congress on Health System Readiness: Pandemic Influenza Community Preparedness Planning, held July 18 to 20 in Washington, D.C.

Alcohol dependence manifests itself in many ways, but patients with this problem have enough in common that they can be placed in five categories, according to a study published online June 26 by the journal, Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The authors hope that subtyping patients in this manner will lead to the discovery of genes that increase the risk for the disorder's specific variations and to treatments that may be more effective for particular individuals.

"Assuming that the subtyping holds up and meets the test of time, we hope to identify specific treatments for specific types of alcoholics," said Howard B. Moss, MD, lead author and associate director for clinical and translational research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "Some may be more amenable to medications to treat alcohol dependence than others, and researchers might find this information useful as they're putting together trials for new agents to treat alcoholism."

Washington -- A commonly prescribed class of antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, has been associated with bone loss in older men and women in at least three large studies published over recent months.

This suspected risk should inspire increased vigilance by physicians regarding who is prescribed these medications and for how long. But for now, no major change in SSRI use is indicated or even advisable, according to several experts.

Fentanyl patches continue to be linked to overdoses, some of them fatal. This adverse event is most associated with situations in which the patch is prescribed off-label for acute pain. Also, because the patches may not be that visible on the skin, more than one may be inadvertently applied at any given time by patients or medical personnel, according to alerts published in May and June by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

"This has been a long-standing problem that we need to bring to everyone's attention," said Michael Cohen, RPh, ScD, president of the institute.