Diabetes News September 9th 2011

Creating a Perioperative Glycemic Control Program
Here, we detail the strategies that our institutions have employed to identify and treat hyperglycemia in patients with diabetes who present for surgery (Anesthesiology Research and Practice)

Improving the Lives of People with Long Term Conditions
This document focuses on people who have long term physical health problems and describes how we as GPs and the other members of the primary health care team can support them to live their lives more comfortably with their condition (RCGP)

Electronic Health Records and Quality of Diabetes Care
These findings support the premise that federal policies encouraging the meaningful use of EHRs may improve the quality of care across insurance types (NEJM)

Effects of a combination of oral antidiabetes drugs with basal insulin therapy on ß-cell function and glycaemic control in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes
In newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, therapy with OAD?+?insulin has had favourable outcomes on recovery and maintenance of ß-cell function and protracted glycaemic remission compared to treatment with OAD alone (Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews)

Type 2 diabetes mellitus and colorectal cancer: Meta-analysis on sex-specific differences
In both men and women, risk estimates from case-control studies were slightly higher than those from cohort studies. Overall, T2DM is associated with a moderate increase in CRC risk in both men and women (European Journal of Cancer)

Diabetes mellitus and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis
This meta-analysis shows that diabetes is associated with moderately increased risk of HCC incidence, as well as HCC mortality (Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews)

Which factors predict glycemic control in children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before 6.5 years of age?
Our results suggest that in patients with T1D diagnosed during the preschool-age, mean HbA1c level in the first year is a strong predictor of achieving target HbA1c level in the subsequent years, regardless the type of insulin regimen (Acta Diabetologica)

Prevalence and Characteristics of Painful Diabetic Neuropathy in a Large Community-Based Diabetes Population in the U.K.
One-third of all community-based diabetic patients have painful neuropathy symptoms, regardless of their neuropathic deficit. This highlights a significant morbidity due to painful neuropathy and identifies key groups who warrant screening for PDN (Diabetes Care)

Critical appraisal of the use of alpha lipoic acid (thioctic acid) in the treatment of symptomatic diabetic polyneuropathy
Treatment with ALA 600 mg iv daily for 3 weeks represents a well-tolerated and effective therapy for DSPN. An oral dose of 600 mg daily administered for up to 5 weeks could offer benefits in symptoms and signs of DSPN without significant side effects (Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management)

Advancing islet transplantation: from engraftment to the immune response
Technologies to enhance engraftment and combat rejection may help to advance the therapeutic efficacy and availability of islet transplantation (Diabetologia)

Novel Susceptibility Locus at 22q11 for Diabetic Nephropathy in Type 1 Diabetes
Our results suggest that this locus may be of importance in European populations. In addition, this study supports previously indicated DN loci on 3q21–q25 and 19q13 (PLoS)

Methylglyoxal impairs insulin signalling and insulin action on glucose-induced insulin secretion in the pancreatic beta cell line INS-1E
MGO participates not only in the pathogenesis of the debilitating complications of type 2 diabetes, but also in worsening of the diabetic state by favouring beta cell failure (Diabetologia)