US ENDOCRINOLOGY – VOLUME 8 ISSUE 1 – SUMMER 2012

Clinical endocrinology has witnessed many surges in activity over the past year. Many events have been exciting and responsive to innovations and discoveries destined to improve healthcare, but many events have also posed tough challenges to the way patient care can be practised. For instance, the recent UN resolution 64/265 drawing attention to global problems […]

‘Quality of life’, we believe, is becoming a more esoteric and often confusing term than first intended when it was originated. At one time just being alive constituted a primitive form of ‘quality of life’.

Type 1 diabetes is classified into two types by the American Diabetes Association; type 1A diabetes is the immune-mediated form and type 1B the non–immune mediated form of the disease, both leading to β-cell destruction and absolute insulin deficiency. It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million people in the US have type 1A diabetes. The […]

Diabetes outcomes are determined largely by self-management of complex behaviors.1 People who use intensive insulin regimens, for example, are taught that healthy blood glucose levels depend on balancing the amount of energy in the food they absorb with the amount of energy they expend while adapting their insulin dose to both.

Realtime continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGM), which provides a glucose reading and trend every five minutes for up to seven days, is a valuable diabetes management tool for people with type 1 diabetes who, in their quest for tight glycemic control, are particularly vulnerable to severe and potentially life-threatening hypoglycemia. The value of RT-CGM for people […]

Type 1 diabetes is a disease that affects about 150,000 youths in the US.1,2 It is characterized by an absence of insulin production by the β-cells of the pancreas.1 Patients with type 1 diabetes must administer insulin, either via injection or insulin pump, to achieve near-normal glucose metabolism and avoid life-threatening ketoacidosis.1 Self-monitoring of blood […]

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems have been available for patient use since 1999 and realtime continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGM) systems have been available since 2006.1 The early systems were blinded and used as a tool by diabetes clinicians for diagnostic purposes (diagnosis of hypo- and hyperglycemia) and to get a more complete picture of a […]

Diabetes is a multifactorial, life-threatening chronic disease characterized by a dysregulation of the endocrine and metabolic pathways involved in the control of blood glucose levels resulting in hyperglycemia. Uncontrolled diabetes gradually impacts on the nervous and circulatory systems, resulting in irreversible long-term complications.

Since the early 1980s, the clinical diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy (DN) has been based on the progression of albuminuria. Albumin excretion rate (AER) was categorised as normo-, micro- or macroalbuminuria based on retrospective studies of AER in type 1 diabetes prior to the introduction of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). […]

In the developed world, diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of vision loss in the working population.1 Coupled with the fact that the prevalence of DR is expected to double by 2025, the impact on quality of life of affected individuals and the societal cost in general cannot be overstated.2 The increasing burden on […]

Most pituitary tumors are non-invasive, benign adenomas that remain confined to the sella turcica. Although there is, at present, no accepted definition of aggressive pituitary adenomas, one would suggest that these have a tendency to recur after initial surgery. They have a rapid growth rate and invade surrounding structures such as the sphenoid and cavernous […]

Acromegaly in pregnant women is an uncommon clinical problem. However, today, due to earlier diagnosis, women present with this concern at a younger age. In patients with pre-existing acromegaly, there may be difficulty conceiving, there are concerns regarding maternal and fetal outcomes, and there are no good data to fully assess the risk:benefit ratio of […]

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy in women of reproductive age, with an approximate prevalence of 6–10 %.1–3 Characterized by clinical features of hyperandrogenism (such as hirsutism) and/or biochemical androgen excess and ovulatory dysfunction, PCOS is additionally associated with a spectrum of comorbidities that include infertility, increased risk of type 2 diabetes […]