Diabetes update acute complications

Wang et al. Surprisingly, it was found that monofilament testing, used as a screening tool for the detection of DPN, had limited sensitivity, albeit acceptable specificity.

The authors support that the use of monofilament testing alone cannot be considered as an optimal practice for the diagnosis of DPN. Dealing with the same issue, J.

Brown et al. Peripheral artery disease is a common complication and comorbidity of diabetes. For these patients, pain reduction can improve significantly their quality of life. Tedeschi et al. The findings of this study support that tapentadol PR is an efficient drug for the treatment of chronic ischemic pain in patients with T2DM. The authors concluded that not only does tapentadol PR decrease significantly the intensity of the pain but it also relieves neuropathic symptoms and improves the quality of patient's life at the same time.

It has been demonstrated that patients with diabetes, who experience episodes of severe hypoglycemia, have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease [ 10 ]. Malkani and A. Kotwal conducted a retrospective chart review study using the electronic database of the University of Massachusetts Medical School Diabetes Clinic.

They included in their study only insulin-treated patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and analyzed patients' self-monitored blood glucose SMBG data and HbA1c levels. Moreover, this study documented that glycemic variability is positively associated with the frequency of hypoglycemia in both patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Therefore, targeting glycemic variability may be a reasonable strategy to avoid hypoglycemia in insulin-treated patients with diabetes.

There is cumulative evidence that the formation of advanced glycation end products AGEs may play an important role in the impaired wound healing observed in patients with diabetes [ 11 ]. Turning their attention to the process of wound healing, Q. They noticed that the group of mice that received the treatment with anti-RAGE antibodies showed an acceleration in wound healing.

Additionally, immunohistochemical staining revealed an improvement in the phagocytic function of macrophages. Undoubtedly, these results are promising and may have useful clinical implications regarding the treatment of wounds in patients with diabetes. With this novel technique, Y. Shang et al. In addition, they assessed the left-ventricular LV diastolic function with transthoracic echocardiographic tissue Doppler imaging. Moreover, in the DbCM group, the value of ECV was positively correlated with the duration of diabetes and negatively correlated with parameters of LV diastolic function.

The present findings demonstrated that measuring the myocardial extracellular matrix expansion with CMR T1 mapping can be a valuable tool for the early diagnosis of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Barmpari et al. The authors found that the prevalence of hypothyroidism was not different between patients with T1DM and T2DM, while nodular goiter was more frequent among T2DM patients.

Of note, T2DM patients with hypothyroidism had higher HbA1c and total cholesterol levels compared to the euthyroid diabetic patients.

Based on these findings, the authors suggest screening for thyroid dysfunction in patients with T2DM because it consists of a frequent comorbidity that can worsen diabetes control. Hyperglycemia can cause modifications in the eye lens through multiple mechanisms, and thus, patients with type 2 diabetes are at increased risk of developing cataract [ 12 ].

Ji et al. The authors conducted two separate experiments. In the first, they administered diosgenin per os to rats and they found that this AR inhibitor delayed the opacification of the lens, which represents an important step in the development of diabetic cataract.

In the second, they treated lens epithelial cells LECs derived from a cell culture with diosgenin and they observed a decrease in the LECs' osmotic expansion, which is an important process in triggering the onset and progression of diabetic cataract. With their findings, the authors support the use of aldose reductase inhibitors to postpone the occurrence of sugar cataract.

Schacht et al. Compared with the control group, diabetic mice had fewer acetylcholine receptors AChRs in their jejunum and increased distance between consecutive intestinal contractions.

Of note, a 4-week genistein-diet reversed the number of jejunum's AChRs, although the effect on the distance between intestinal contractions was insignificant. If you think you might have one of these types, be sure to talk with your doctor. More on diabetes from other causes. When it comes to prediabetes, there are no clear symptoms—so you may have it and not know it.

You may have some of the symptoms of diabetes or even some of the complications. Regardless, check with your doctor and get tested. Even small changes can have a huge impact on managing diabetes or preventing it all together—so get to a doctor today and get tested.

Hearing that your child or loved one has diabetes can be a shock. But after that shock wears off, know that there are plenty of things you can do to help manage their diabetes. With planning and preparation, you can get back to normal life and resume your daily activities. You can make physical activity part of every day.

You can create a balanced diet for your child—one that everyone can live with and thrive on. There are Olympic athletes with diabetes, as well as professional football players, politicians, actors, rock stars, and CEOs. So, take a deep breath. You can do so much to make sure the people you love are thriving as they manage their diabetes.

By working as a team, families, health care providers, and school staff work to monitor blood sugar and administer insulin. In addition to that, we can help ensure that all students have trained staff on hand who can recognize and treat high and low blood sugar and administer emergency glucagon.

Log in menu Manage Account Search. Donate now. Diabetes Overview. Diabetes Overview The path to understanding diabetes starts here. New to diabetes? Palk LE Assessing and managing the acute complications of diabetes mellitus. This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software.

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