Briefs

Clement Clarke moves into U.S. market GRANBURY, Texas and ESSEX, England - Alliance Tech Medical, an international medical distribution and sales management company, recently entered an exclusive agreement with Clement Clarke International of England. Alliance Tech will manage the North American distribution of Clement Clarke's line of asthma and COPD products, including its peak flow meters, inspiratory trainers, spirometers and compressors. The partnership aims to expand Clement Clark's North American presence in these markets. Alliance Tech has four regional offices across the United States as well as distribution channels in Canada and Mexico. Antioxidants reduce type 2 diabetes risk HELSINKI - Eating a diet rich in antioxidants, such a vitamin E, appears to ward off diabetes, new research reports. A group of Finnish researchers found that people who ate diets that contained the most vitamin E were 30% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. People who consumed large amounts of carotenoids, compounds that produce the red, yellow and orange colors found in many fruits and vegetables, were also less likely to develop the disease. Vitamin E and other antioxidants are believed to prevent diabetes by “mopping up” free radicals, cell damaging particles that are a byproduct of normal metabolism. Common misdiagnosis pairs OSA & hypertension NORTHBROOK, Ill. - Patients with sleep apnea may be commonly misdiagnosed with hypertension, says a study published recently. In the study, one-third of patients with sleep apnea who were physician-diagnosed with hypertension actually had “white coat hypertension” (WCH), a condition characterized by an increase in blood pressure during a doctor's office visit and normal blood press during all other situations. The results suggest that the occurrence of WCH could lead to an overdiagnosis of hypertension among patients with sleep apnea, thereby leading to flawed conclusions regarding the association between hypertension and sleep apnea.