Diabetes News February 3rd 2012

Diabetes Update for January – Pregnancy
Interesting monthly Diabetes Updates on the Glycosmedia website

Chronic Kidney Disease Resource Pack
This resource pack, developed by NHS Kidney Care, contains a variety of resources designed to help support the management of CKD in the community (NHS Kidney Care)

When Is Hemoglobin A1c Inaccurate In Assessing Glycemic Control?
It is useful to consider the situations in which HbA1c may be spuriously elevated or depressed. These issues are best understood after reviewing how HbA1c is defined and measured–topics fraught with considerable confusion (Clinical Correlations)

Introduction of metformin for gestational diabetes mellitus in clinical practice: has it had an impact?
Women treated with metformin had a significantly lower incidence of macrosomic and large for gestational age neonates as well as a reduced caesarean section rate (European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology)

Diabetes indicators in Australia
Standardised measures of the highest priority information that can be used to: establish benchmarks – monitor and compare the diabetes status of population groups over time – and monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of health policy, prevention and management strategies (AIHW)

When Is Diabetes Distress Clinically Meaningful?
In two samples of type 2 diabetic patients we found a consistent pattern of curvilinear relationships between the DDS and HbA1c, diabetes self-efficacy, diet, and physical activity. The shape of these relationships suggests cut points for three patient groups: little or no, moderate, and high distress (Diabetes Care)

Age Before Stage: Insulin Resistance Rises Before the Onset of Puberty
IR starts to rise in mid-childhood, some years before puberty. Its emergence relates more to the age of the child than to pubertal onset. More than 60% of the variation in IR prior to puberty was unexplained. The demography of childhood diabetes is changing, and prepubertal IR may be important (Diabetes Care)

Can sharing experiences in groups reduce the burden of living with diabetes, regardless of glycaemic control?
Support groups are able to reduce diabetes-related and psychological distress 1 year after the intervention for patients with both good and poor glycaemic control displaying high levels of distress (Diabetic Medicine)

Silencing of insulin receptor substrate–1 increases cell death in retinal Müller cells
In these studies, we show for the first time that salmeterol, a beta-2-adrenergic receptor agonist, can reduce retinal Müller cell death through IRS-1 actions. These findings also suggest the importance of IRS-1 in beta-adrenergic receptor signaling in the prevention of cell death in retinal Müller cells (Molecular Vision)

Variations in tissue selectivity amongst insulin secretagogues: a systematic review
Insulin secretagogues display different tissue selectivity characteristics at therapeutic doses. This may translate into different levels of cardiovascular risk (Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism)

FDA Approves BYDUREON™ – The First and Only Once-Weekly Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes
Provides Glycemic Control in a Once-Weekly Dose (Amylin Pharmaceuticals)