Researchers from Brazil have developed and validated an accurate predictive model that comprises the sum of five outcome variables to predict success of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) based exclusively on patients’ preoperative characteristics. The findings could be used to prioritise patients with the best indication for the procedure and incorporated in the public health system as a support tool in the decision-making process.

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown way that pancreatic cells decide how much insulin to secrete, which could provide a promising new target to develop drugs for boosting insulin production in people with T2DM. In two papers published in Cell Metabolism, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and their colleagues point to an overlooked enzyme known as pyruvate kinase as the primary way pancreatic beta cells sense sugar levels and release the appropriate amount of insulin.

Preventing heart attacks and strokes in type 2 diabetes patients managed in primary care should be an urgent priority, according to the study, ‘Half of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus are at very high cardiovascular risk according to the 2019 ESC/EASD categories: data from a large Mediterranean population’, published on World Diabetes Day in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

A single-blind, sham procedure randomised trial of transcatheter bariatric embolotherapy (TBE) of the left gastric artery (LGA) in patients with obesity has shown that the procedure is well-tolerated and resulted in effective weight loss at six-month follow-up, compared with the sham control, and the weight loss was sustained at 12 months.

Allurion Technologies has announced new clinical data from two studies on the Elipse Balloon at ObesityWeek 2020. The Allurion Program features the Elipse Balloon, the world’s first and only procedureless weight loss device. The balloon is designed to remain in the stomach for four months and is paired with a Bluetooth connected scale and Allurion smartphone app and a supervised nutritional programme.