Diabetes News November 4th 2011

A big thank you to Lilly for renewing their unrestricted grant for 2012. Jim Young. Editor

Inpatient diabetes – £600 million excess outlay could be reduced with specialist care
The research, titled ‘Inpatient Care for People with Diabetes: The Economic Case for Change (PDF 10.5MB)’, found that the NHS in England spends more than £2.3 billion a year on inpatient care for people with diabetes. That’s 11% of NHS inpatient care expenditure (NHS Diabetes)

Diabetes diagnosis rates driven up by GP practices
Practices in England are closing the gap between detected cases of diabetes and true levels of disease, QOF data suggest (GP)

Which Anthropometric Parameter Is Best Related With Urinary Albumin Excretion and Creatinine Clearance in Type 2 Diabetes
Among the anthropometric parameters, only an increase in WC was found to be independently related to 24-hour 24-hour urinary albumin excretion rate (Journal of Renal Nutrition)

Age-Corrected Beta Cell Mass Following Onset of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Correlates with Plasma C-Peptide in Humans
Given the correlation between beta cell mass and plasma C-peptide following onset, plasma C-peptide may provide a surrogate measure of beta cell mass in humans. The clinical relevance of this study is that therapeutic strategies that provide an increase in plasma C-peptide over the predicted value for an individual may actually improve beta cell mass (PLoS ONE)

A Longitudinal Study of GAD65 and ICA512 Autoantibodies During the Progression to Type 1 Diabetes in Diabetes Prevention Trial–Type 1 (DPT-1) Participants
IA-2A titers increase during the years before the diagnosis of T1D, even among those positive for IA-2A. In contrast, GADA titers tend to decline during those years (Diabetes Care)

Sensors for Medicine and Science Raises $54.1 million Series D Financing
Sensors for Medicine and Science, Inc. (SMSI), a privately held medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of the first fully implantable, long-term continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for people with diabetes, announced today a $54.1 million Series D equity financing (Sensors for Medicine and Science)

Medtronic Receives IDE Approval to Conduct Aspire In-Home Study of First Insulin Pump with Low Glucose Suspend for US Market
A Critical Step Toward the Development of an Artificial Pancreas, Low Glucose Suspend Aims to Reduce Hypoglycemia (Medtronic)

Alogliptin as a third oral antidiabetic drug in patients with type 2 diabetes and inadequate glycaemic control on metformin and pioglitazone 52-week, randomized, double-blind, active-controlled, parallel-group study
Adding alogliptin to an existing metformin–pioglitazone regimen provided superior glycaemic control and potentially improved ß-cell function versus uptitrating pioglitazone in patients with type 2 diabetes, with no clinically important differences in safety (Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism)

Therapeutic Modalities in Diabetic Nephropathy: Standard and Emerging Approaches
This review highlights the available standard therapeutic approaches to manage progressive diabetic nephropathy, including markers for early diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy. Furthermore, we will discuss emerging strategies such as PPAR-gamma agonists, Endothelin blockers, vitamin D activation and inflammation modulation. Finally, we will summarize the recommendations of these interventions for the primary care practitioner (Journal of General Internal Medicine)