Endocrinology

Even as Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems become more commonplace in the medical community there is still a large knowledge gap between health care professionals and their patients regarding the availability and use of these systems, according to a recent survey.

Phthalates may be replacing lead as the leading environmental exposure concern. Some studies indicate that there may be a link between phthalates, obesity, endocrine disruption, and metabolic interference.

Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) is a rare and severe hereditary lipid disorder. Patients with HoFH generally have very high serum levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) that is treatment-resistant. HoFH puts affected patients at extremely high risk of premature onset coronary heart disease, and many patients die before they reach their mid-30s.

As the number of bariatric surgeries increase, clinicians require more and better data about its long-term outcomes. As we know, as more people take a medication or undergo a surgical procedure, the better the quality of the collective data. It's the strength in numbers concept. In the case of bariatric surgery, many clinicians have questions about treatment failure rates and they suspect that reports of sustained weight loss may be overly optimistic.

Intensify treatment and minimize weight gain/hypoglycemia? It's possible, say results of the first study to compare a GLP-1 agonist with titrated lispro on a background of optimized basal insulin.

While the dangers of smoking are well known to most people there still remains a segment of the population who continues to smoke despite efforts to encourage them to quit.

Looking at patients with asthma it can be easy to group them all together for treatment options. Recent studies have shown that that may not be the best way to approach helping people dealing with both obesity and asthma.

The authors reviews several challenging cases illustrating the utility of the anion gap in the evaluation of an acidotic patient.

As the workload for doctors increases some practices and hospitals are turning to scribes to help with some of the duties. What they should be doing and how much involvement they should have remains a topic of discussion.

A group of international researchers led by Luosheng Li, MD, of the Rolf Luft Research Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at the Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, recently demonstrated that age-dependent decline in insulin secretion (and thus glucose homeostasis) from the beta cell in experimental mice models is associated with subtle changes in Ca2+ dynamics.

In the American Journal of Medicine, Christopher Sorli, MD, of the Billings Clinic in Montana, reviewed new developments in insulin therapy for type 2 diabetes. He explained that insulin initiation often involved basal-only therapy in conjunction with existing oral glucose-lowering drugs.

AstraZeneca today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved once-daily Xigduo XR (dapagliflozin and metformin hydrochloride extended-release) for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The 2013 revision of guidelines on managing overweight and obesity in adults suggests that providers and patients set a goal of a sustained weight loss of 3-5% of baseline body weight to obtain improvements in triglycerides, blood glucose, HbA1c, and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Individuals who engage in physical activity on a regular basis have improved cardiovascular fitness, improved insulin sensitivity, and improved glucose tolerance.

Patients who are overweight or obese have several medication options as an adjunct to lifestyle modification for weight loss.

App will help patients with diabetes log their hypoglycemic events and achieve better control of these events by becoming more aware of preceding signs and symptoms.

Provocative research raises the question of whether we should we look at Alzheimer's disease as "type 3 diabetes."

Presentation at CMHC 2014 provides updates on emerging classes of diabetes treatment, including preliminary data from current clinical trials.

Patients' body weight (BW) is the accepted way to calculate the starting dose of levothyroxine (LT4) after total thyroidectomy. However, Italian researchers sought to find a new way to improve the accuracy of the LT4 starting dose following total thyroidectomy by identifying other major predictive factors of LT4 requirement.

Recent studies of targeted anti-inflammatory therapy show promise for helping patients with high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels.

Advances in treatment could provide much needed help for patients with obesity, diabetes, and hypertension

Patients diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy may be able to get a sense of how their condition has progressed without having to leave the comfort of their own home.

Cushing syndrome occurs only rarely in children, but when it does, it causes weight gain and stunting. In young children, adrenal tumors are usually the cause while in adolescents, pituitary tumors are more likely.

Prompted by almost-epidemic rates of diabetes in the United States and globally, the American Diabetes Association recently convened a consensus panel to examine diabetic kidney disease, one of the most frequent complications associated with diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes occurs at roughly the same prevalence in men and women. Despite the similar prevalence in the sexes, women who develop diabetes feel the effect of its complications disproportionately.

Research presented at the European League Against Rheumatism's Annual Meeting indicates comorbid diabetes may be linked to increased osteoarthritis pain.

Calculation and interpretation of the anion gap is extremely useful in the evaluation and treatment of the patient with metabolic acidosis. In this installment, we look at case examples involving patients with multiple sclerosis and urosepsis; COPD, diabetes, and renal failure; and type 1 diabetes.

News from the literature on a possible link between atherosclerosis and psoriasis and quality of life for patients with this skin condition.

The days of sitting in front of the television with an Atari controller or driving Mario around on his cart are largely over but even the more interactive video games do not do enough to keep this generation of children healthy.

Those friendly reminders; you get them every day-Mrs X hasn’t refilled a scrip; Mr J needs an eye exam; Ms Q may be noncompliant with her ARB. Listen, I promise I DO know what the guidelines say!