IntroductionDiabetes education is an essential tool to achieve treatment objectives in type1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The aim of this study was to determine if understanding of diabetes by caregivers/patients or sociodemographic factors affect blood glucose control in children and adolescents with T1DM. Patients and methodsThe level of knowledge of 105 caregivers of children and adolescents with T1DM was assessed using a survey adapted to the type of treatment used (multiple dose insulin [MDI] or continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion [CSII]). Mean HbA1c levels in the previous year was considered as metabolic control marker. ResultsMean HbA1c levels were similar in both treatment groups, with slightly higher values in children over 12years of age. Patients on CSII had a longer time since disease onset and had poorer results, maybe because the items were more difficult due to the higher level of knowledge required for this treatment modality (P=.005). Caregivers with lower educational levels achieved poorer scores in the survey, but mean HbA1c levels of their children were lower, probably because of their greater involvement in disease care. ConclusionsThe level of knowledge of caregivers and/or patients with T1DM was high, and this was associated to good metabolic control. Studies to assess the impact of caregiver knowledge on metabolic control of children are needed.

High weight is a protective factor against osteoporosis and risk of fracture. In obesity, however, where overweight is associated to excess fat, this relationship does not appear to be so clear, excess weight has sometimes been associated to decreased bone mass. Obesity interferes with bone metabolism through mechanical, hormonal, and inflammatory factors. These factors are closely related to weight, body composition, and dietary patterns of these patients. The net beneficial or harmful effect on bone mass or risk of fracture of the different components of this condition is not well known. We need to recognize patients at a greater risk of bone disease related to obesity to start an adequate intervention.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus prevalence and morbidity are increasing. Osteoporotic fractures are among the ‘non-classical’ complications of diabetes and been overlooked for a long time, maybe because of their complex diagnostic and therapeutic approach. The usual tools for preventing fragility fractures (such as the fracture risk assessment tool and bone densitometry) underestimate risk of fractures in type2 diabetic patients. New techniques, such as trabecular bone score or bone turnover markers, could be useful, but greater scientific evidence is required to recommend their use in clinical practice. The special characteristics of their pathophysiology result in decreased bone remodeling with normal or even increased bone mineral density, but with low quality. These changes lead to the occurrence of osteoporotic fractures without evidence of densitometric changes, which could be called ‘the diabetic paradox’.

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of protein-energy wasting (PEW) in hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients in our center and determine whether adiponectin and leptin are involved in the development of PEW. DesignProspective (18 months). SettingUniversity Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece. SubjectsSeventy-four end-stage-renal-disease patients, 47 on HD and 27 on PD. Main outcome measuresAt three sequential time points (baseline, 6 and 18 months) anthropometric, nutritional and inflammatory status data were collected. Serum adiponectin and leptin were also assessed at each time point. Patients were allocated to 3 strata according to PEW severity (0, 1–2 and ≥3 criteria for PEW). ResultsAdiponectin and leptin levels were greater among PD compared to HD patients (p≤0.035). Adiponectin levels were incrementally greater across increasing strata of PEW (p≤0.002). Leptin showed the opposite trend, with lower levels in malnourished patients and higher levels in patients with zero PEW criteria (p≤0.042). Alterations of adiponectin levels during the observation period were dependent on PEW stratum (p≤0.021) and mode of dialysis (p≤0.002), after adjustment for age, dialysis vintage, gender and fat mass index. Particularly, adiponectin levels increased over time in HD patients with ≥3 criteria for PEW, whereas adiponectin levels decreased in PD patients with ≥3 criteria for PEW throughout the study. Leptin alterations over time were not affected by dialysis mode or PEW stratification. ConclusionsOur study provides evidence that increased adiponectin and decreased leptin levels are independently associated with PEW and thus, poor prognosis.

The concept of prebiotics, probiotics, and symbiotics and their use in different situations of daily clinical practice related to clinical nutrition is reviewed, as well as their role in the treatment/prevention of diarrhea (acute, induced by antibiotics, secondary to radiotherapy), inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and pouchitis), in colonic health (constipation, irritable bowel), in liver disease (steatosis and minimum encephalopathy), and in intensive care, surgical, and liver transplantation. While their effectiveness for preventing antibiotic-induced diarrhea and pouchitis in ulcerative colitis appears to be shown, additional studies are needed to establish recommendations in most clinical settings. The risk of infection associated to use of probiotics is relatively low; however, there are selected groups of patients in whom they should be used with caution (as jejunum infusion).

In recent years, many studies have related gut microbiome to development of highly prevalent diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. Obesity itself is associated to changes in the composition of gut microbiome, with a trend to an overgrowth of microorganisms more efficiently obtaining energy from diet. There are several mechanisms that relate microbiota to the onset of insulin resistance and diabetes, including changes in bowel permeability, endotoxemia, interaction with bile acids, changes in the proportion of brown adipose tissue, and effects associated to use of drugs like metformin.Currently, use of pro and prebiotics and other new techniques such as gut microbiota transplant, or even antibiotic therapy, has been postulated to be useful tools to modulate the development of obesity and insulin resistance through the diet.

ObjectiveTo assess the prevalence of miscoding, misclassification, misdiagnosis and under-registration of diabetes mellitus (DM) in primary health care in Catalonia (Spain), and to explore use of automated algorithms to identify them. MethodsIn this cross-sectional, retrospective study using an anonymized electronic general practice database, data were collected from patients or users with a diabetes-related code or from patients with no DM or prediabetes code but treated with antidiabetic drugs (unregistered DM). Decision algorithms were designed to classify the true diagnosis of type 1 DM (T1DM), type 2 DM (T2DM), and undetermined DM (UDM), and to classify unregistered DM patients treated with antidiabetic drugs. ResultsData were collected from a total of 376,278 subjects with a DM ICD-10 code, and from 8707 patients with no DM or prediabetes code but treated with antidiabetic drugs. After application of the algorithms, 13.9% of patients with T1DM were identified as misclassified, and were probably T2DM; 80.9% of patients with UDM were reclassified as T2DM, and 19.1% of them were misdiagnosed as DM when they probably had prediabetes. The overall prevalence of miscoding (multiple codes or UDM) was 2.2%. Finally, 55.2% of subjects with unregistered DM were classified as prediabetes, 35.7% as T2DM, 8.5% as UDM treated with insulin, and 0.6% as T1DM. ConclusionsThe prevalence of inappropriate codification or classification and under-registration of DM is relevant in primary care. Implementation of algorithms could automatically flag cases that need review and would substantially decrease the risk of inappropriate registration or coding.

ObjectiveTo assess the long-term clinical and economic impact of integrated pump/CGM technology therapy as compared to multiple daily injections (MDI), for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in Colombia. MethodsThe CORE Diabetes Model was used to simulate a hypothetical cohort of patients with T1D. Mean baseline characteristics were taken from a clinical study conducted in Colombia and a healthcare payer perspective was adopted, with a 5% annual discount rate applied to both costs and outcomes. ResultsThe integrated pump/CGM improved mean life expectancy by 3.51 years compared with MDI. A similar increase occurred in mean quality-adjusted life expectancy with an additional 3.81 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Onset of diabetes-related complications was also delayed as compared to MDI, and mean survival time free of complication increased by 1.74 years with integrated pump/CGM. Although this increased treatment costs of diabetes as compared to MDI, savings were achieved thanks to reduced expenditure on diabetes-related complications. The estimated incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for SAP was Colombian Pesos (COP) 44,893,950 (approximately USD$23,200) per QALY gained. ConclusionsImproved blood glucose control associated to integrated pump/CGM results in a decreased incidence of diabetes-related complications and improves life expectancy as compared to MDI. Using recommended thresholds from the World Health Organization and previous coverage decisions about health technologies in Colombia, it is a cost-effective alternative to MDI for the treatment of type 1 diabetes in Colombia.

PurposeTo describe real-world use of lanreotide combination therapy for acromegaly. Patients and methodsACROCOMB is a retrospective observational Spanish study of patients with active acromegaly treated with lanreotide combination therapy between 2006 and 2011. 108 patients treated at 44 Spanish Endocrinology Departments were analyzed separately: 61 patients received lanreotide/cabergoline (cabergoline cohort) and 47 lanreotide/pegvisomant (pegvisomant cohort). ResultsPatient median age was 50.8 years in the cabergoline cohort and 42.7 years in the pegvisomant cohort. Prior medical treatments were somatostatin analogue (SSA) monotherapy (40 [66%] patients) or dopamine agonists (7 [11%] patients) in the cabergoline cohort and SSA (29 [62%] patients) or pegvisomant monotherapy (16 [34%] patients) in the pegvisomant cohort. Across both cohorts 12 patients were previously untreated, and prior therapy was unknown/missing in 4 patients. Median duration of combined treatment was 1.6 years (0.1–6) and 2.1 years (0.4–6.3) in the cabergoline and pegvisomant cohorts, respectively. At baseline, median insulin growth factor (IGF)-I values were 149% upper limit of normal (ULN) (15–505%) in the cabergoline cohort and 156% ULN (15–534%) in the pegvisomant cohort, and decreased to 104% ULN (13–557%) p<0.001 and 86% ULN (23–345%) p<0.0001, respectively, at end of study (EOS). Normal age-adjusted values of IGF-I were obtained in 48% of lanreotide/cabergoline-treated patients and 70% of lanreotide/pegvisomant-treated patients at EOS. There were no significant changes in hepatic, cardiac or glycaemic parameters in either cohort. ConclusionIn clinical practice lanreotide treatment combinations are useful options for patients with acromegaly when monotherapy is insufficient; particularly, the combination of lanreotide and pegvisomant in patients not controlled with either SSA or pegvisomant alone has high efficacy and is well-tolerated.

Background and objectiveThyroid cancer may be clinically evident as a tumor mass in the neck or as a histopathological incidental finding after thyroid surgery for an apparent benign condition. Our objective was to assess the differences in clinical signs, surgical management, and course between incidental and clinically diagnosed thyroid tumors. MethodsA retrospective study was conducted on patients operated on for benign or malignant thyroid disease from January 2000 to March 2014. Among the 1415 patients who underwent any thyroid surgery, 264 neoplasms were found, of which 170 were incidental. A comparison was made of incidental versus non-incidental carcinomas. Among incidental carcinomas, cases whose indication for surgery was Graves’ disease were compared to those with multinodular goiter. ResultsIncidental carcinomas were in earlier stages and required less aggressive surgery. There were no differences in surgical complications between incidental and clinical tumors, but mortality and relapses were markedly higher in non-incidental cancers (4.4% vs 0% and 13.2% vs 4.8% respectively). Carcinomas developing on Graves’ disease showed no differences from all other incidental tumors in terms of complications, mortality, or relapse after surgery. ConclusionsEarly stage thyroid cancer has better survival and prognosis after surgical treatment.