Prehypertension

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 11, 2024 -- In the two years since the March of Dimes' last report on the state of U.S. maternity care, more than 100 hospitals nationwide have shuttered their obstetric units, leaving more new moms with literally "Nowhere to Go" for care. The March of Dimes' 2024 report, titled " Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S. ," finds hospital closures have left more than 5.5 million women and their babies with no or limited access to maternity care. "For too many families across the U.S., the ability to have a healthy pregnancy depends on where they live," March of Dimes Chief Medical Officer Dr. Amanda Williams said in a news release. "Our 2024 report underscores that maternity care is still not prioritized in our country and there is an urgent need for systemic changes to improve outcomes for moms and babies in the U.S. and to ensure that these families have access to the care they need and deserve." With hospitals closing maternity units in over 100 counties between 2022 and 2024, more new mothers are being forced to travel long distances to access care -- if they can make the trip at all. Overall, a third of all U.S. counties are now classified by the March of Dimes as "maternity care deserts," with no birthing facilities or obstetricians. The worst states for this are North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Oklahoma and Nebraska. Over 150,000 babies were born to women living in maternity deserts during the time period covered by the report. All of this matters to outcomes for women and babies: Preterm births are 13% more likely in a maternity care desert, the March of Dimes said. The number of women who have high blood pressure before they became pregnant rose by 80% between 2015 and 2022, the group noted, and the rate of pre-pregnancy hypertension is 30% higher in counties deemed maternity care deserts. "Hypertension increases the risk for adverse outcomes such as preeclampsia , a potentially fatal condition that causes a pregnant woman’s blood pressure to rise and can lead to preterm birth, stroke, seizure and other complications," the March of Dimes noted. Women of color are being hit especially hard. “Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes -- a tragedy exacerbated by a lack of resources to care for them, let alone save them,” Tatyana Ali , American actress ("Fresh Prince of Bel Air") and March of Dimes advocate. “As a Black birthing woman who experienced firsthand the inequities of our maternal healthcare system, we must do better for ourselves, each other and our communities. The health of moms and babies needs to be a priority in the U.S.” Trying to ease the crisis, the March of Dimes has created a fleet of Mom and Baby Mobile Health Centers, which "focus on providing critical care to families in chronically underserved communities," the group said. So far, these mobile health centers have been set up in Tucson, Ariz.; Phoenix; Columbus, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; and New York City, with more set to launch in Houston; Cleveland, Ohio; Southeast, Ohio; Birmingham, Ala.; and in Arizona where it will serve a tribal population. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

FRIDAY, Aug. 30, 2024 -- There is an independent association between noise exposure duration and elevated blood pressure in factory workers, according to a study presented at ACC Asia 2024, the joint meeting of the American College of Cardiology and the Cardiological Society of India, held from Aug. 16 to 18 in Delhi, India. Golam Dastageer Prince, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., from the Directorate of General of Health Services in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and colleagues investigated the association between occupational noise exposure duration and blood pressure among rural adult power loom weavers. The analysis included interviews with 289 adult factory workers. The researchers found that workplace exposure duration averaged 15.97 years, with noise intensity ranging from 96 to 111 dB (mean, 105.45 dB). The prevalence of hypertension was 31.5 percent, with 53.3 percent fitting the criteria for prehypertension. There were positive correlations observed between systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and noise exposure duration. SBP and DBP were predicted by linear regression for noise exposure duration. After adjusting for age, body mass index, and smoking status, each year of noise exposure increased the odds of hypertension by 10 percent (adjusted odds ratio, 1.1). "As the study focused on workers exposed to more than 85 dB noise for long periods of time, any profession causing workers to experience similar exposure might experience similar blood pressure impacts," Prince said in a statement. "We definitely need more exploratory studies to reveal more information about the potential mechanisms and long-term health outcomes." Press Release More Information Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

Leveraging the Company's 4 x 6.7 mm System-on-a-Chip (SoC), the clinical study results are a significant step forward in commercializing a cuffless, radio frequency (RF)-enabled blood pressure device PLEASANTON, Calif., Oct. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Movano Health (Nasdaq: MOVE), a purpose-driven healthcare solutions company at the intersection of medical and consumer devices and makers of the Evie Ring, today announced the results of its Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved blood pressure clinical study. Movano Health's prototype, which incorporated its SoC, demonstrated a level of accuracy within the standards recognized by the FDA for blood pressure monitoring devices. The Company's algorithm for blood pressure monitoring utilized data from its prototype system combined with the subject's demographic information and a recent blood pressure reading. The prototype achieved an overall mean absolute difference (MAD) of 5.9 mmHg, which is below the 7 mmHg MAD required per a standard for wearable, cuffless blood pressure measuring devices (IEEE1708a-2019). The Company is also evaluating AI-based individual calibration methods to further enhance the future performance of the device. The 44-participant study, conducted at the Movano Health Clinical Lab, assessed the accuracy of its wrist-worn wearable prototype compared to a hospital-grade FDA-cleared blood pressure monitor. The study measured the blood pressure of each participant multiple times, including while under stress, which resulted in an average participant systolic blood pressure range of 25 mmHg and a total study range of 85 - 171 mmHg. The Company's 4 x 6.7 mm SoC combines multiple antennas and a variety of frequencies in the smallest ever RF-enabled integrated circuit designed specifically for blood pressure and glucose monitoring. After shrinking its multi-chip architecture from four chips into one in mid-2022, Movano Health began using the patented SoC in clinical studies this year, which has materially improved the accuracy of its blood pressure measurements as seen by the results of this most recent study. In its current form factor, Movano Health's wearable prototype represents one of the smallest and most accessible ways to measure blood pressure. "After multiple iterations of optimizing our IC, antennas, and AI algorithms, our SoC produced much cleaner signals with significantly less noise in this study than our multiple chip solution did previously," said Michael Leabman, CTO and founder of Movano Health. "Most importantly, we learned that our machine learning models hold across a broader range of blood pressure values than in prior studies, which is crucial for our pursuit of commercializing an FDA cleared cuffless blood pressure wearable." Hypertension has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and is often labeled the silent killer as many don't know they are affected. According to the American Heart Association, high blood pressure affects half of Americans ages 20 years and older – or more than 122 million people – and 59 million Americans have prehypertension. Movano Health's cutting-edge RF technology has the potential to empower individuals and their clinicians to better monitor and manage their high blood pressure on a daily basis. "Our goal is to deliver a more accurate, flexible and cost-effective wearable blood pressure solution, and this study reveals the initial payoff of our investment in propriety mmWave sensor technology. We are extremely encouraged with the performance of our SoC, and the next step is to confirm the calibration holds in longer studies, which would open a pathway to implementing the SoC in future iterations of the Evie Ring and other form factors," said John Mastrototaro, CEO of Movano Health. Movano Health is planning to execute a multi-week study to determine whether periodic calibration is required and refine its AI models on an individual patient basis beginning in the fourth quarter of 2023. Following the completion of this longitudinal study, the Company intends to conduct a clinical trial for its 510(k) submission to the FDA. About Movano Health Founded in 2018, Movano Inc. (Nasdaq: MOVE) dba Movano Health is developing a suite of purpose-driven healthcare solutions to bring medical-grade, high-quality data to the forefront of consumer health devices. Featuring modern form factors, Movano Health's devices capture a comprehensive picture of a person's vital health information and uniquely translate the data into personalized and intelligent insights that empower consumers to live healthier and more balanced lives. Movano Health's end-to-end solutions will soon enable consumers and their healthcare professionals to utilize daily medical-grade data as a tool to proactively monitor and manage health outcomes. For more information on Movano Health, visit . Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning our expectations, anticipations, intentions, beliefs, or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that we have made as of the date hereof and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, conditions, and events to differ materially from those anticipated. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding plans with respect to commercial launch of the Evie Ring, anticipated FDA clearance for the Evie Ring and other products in development, expected future operating results; product development and features, product releases, clinical trial, and regulatory initiatives; our strategies, positioning and expectations for future events or performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are set forth in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and in our other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the caption "Risk Factors." Any forward-looking statement in this release speaks only as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. SOURCE Movano