Search

Background and Aim: Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by varying hyperglycemias either due to insufficient secretion of insulin by the pancreas or improper utilization of glucose. The study was aimed to investigate the association of morphological features of erythrocytes among normal and diabetic subjects and its gender-based changes and thereby to develop a computer aided tool to diagnose diabetes using features extracted from RBC. Materials and Methods: The study involved 138 normal and 144 diabetic subjects. The blood was drawn from the subjects and the blood smear prepared was digitized using Zeiss fluorescent microscope. The digitized images were pre-processed and texture segmentation was performed to extract the various morphological features. The Pearson correlation test was performed and subsequently, classification of subjects as normal and diabetes was carried out by a neural network classifier based on the features that demonstrated significance at the level of P

Prescribing glucose requires complex calculations because glucose is present in parenteral and enteral nutrition and drug vehicles, making it error prone and contributing to the burden of prescribing errors.Evaluation of the impact of a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system with clinical decision support (CDS) for glucose control in neonatal intensive care patients (NICU) focusing on hypo- and hyperglycemic episodes and prescribing time efficiency.An interrupted time-series design to examine the effect of CPOE on hypo- and hyperglycemias and a crossover simulation study to examine the influence of CPOE on prescribing time efficiency. NICU patients at risk for glucose imbalance hospitalized at the University Medical Center Utrecht during 2001-2007 were selected. The risks of hypo- and hyperglycemias were expressed as incidences per 100 patient days in consecutive 3-month intervals during 3 years before and after CPOE implementation. To assess prescribing time efficiency, time needed to calculate glucose intake with and without CPOE was measured.No significant difference was found between pre- and post-CPOE mean incidences of hypo- and hyperglycemias per 100 hospital days of neonates at risk in every 3-month period (hypoglycemias, 4.0 [95% confidence interval, 3.2-4.8] pre-CPOE and 3.1 [2.7-3.5] post-CPOE, P = .88; hyperglycemias, 6.0 [4.3-7.7] pre-CPOE and 5.0 [3.7-6.3] post-CPOE, P = .75). CPOE led to a significant time reduction of 16% (1.3 [0.3-2.3] minutes) for simple and 60% (8.6 [5.1-12.1] minutes) for complex calculations.CPOE including a special CDS tool preserved accuracy for calculation and control of glucose intake and increased prescribing time efficiency.

Aims Association between conventionally identified hyperglycemias and rates of congenital abnormalities is known; however there is less information about role of HbA1c in determining gestational hyperglycemias and associated risks. This study tried to explore the association between HbA1c in women without known diabetes at first antenatal visit and risk of congenital malformations (CM) among Saudi women living at Al-Madinah Al-Monawarah. Methods Eleven hundred and eighty (1180), healthy, first-trimester pregnant Saudi females without known diabetes, were selected from various antenatal care clinics of Al-Madinah Al-Monawarah city. General clinical and biochemical data was collected for this study by researchers at first visit and the time of delivery. Results Nearly one fifth (19.6%) of mothers had above normal HbA1c (>5.7) at first visit. Rates of CM had significant positive association with level of HbA1c. Rate of CM among those who had HbA1c in diabetes range, pre-diabetes range or normal range was 27.8%, 9.8% and 3.0%, respectively. The difference was significant between normal and pre-diabetes at the level P =0.000 and between pre-diabetes and diabetes at level P =0.038. Conclusion In this study HbA1c is found to be a valuable predictor of risk of congenital malformations. This observation calls for further studies and establishment of policies for care of pregnant mothers having higher than normal HbA1c at first visit.

Three insulin-dependent diabetic patients estimated their blood glucose levels twice daily. Following baseline two interventions were implemented: (1) In the feedback procedure (F) subjects received immediate feedback regarding the accuracy of their estimation; (2) In the feedback plus external cues procedure (FEC) subjects were told to take into account a list of "external cues" related to blood glucose levels before estimating their level and receiving feedback. The FEC procedure resulted in a larger increase in accuracy of blood glucose level estimation than the feedback-only procedure. The FEC procedure also resulted in more important decreases in the percentage of hyperglycemic assessments and in the percentage of nonestimated hyperglycemias than the feedback procedure.

Publisher Summary A variable number of abnormalities combine to make up the syndrome known as “diabetes mellitus.” The definition of exactly what constitutes the diabetic state is somewhat arbitrary and semantic, and is often viewed differently by the experimentalist and the clinician. Hyperglycemia is the one condition common to all definitions of diabetes. The most common clinical type of diabetes mellitus and the diabetic states, which have been most thoroughly investigated experimentally, are caused by a primary lack or absence of insulin. It is perhaps a useful coincidence that in English the word diabetes is spelled like a plural. Certainly it ought to be considered as a collective noun, representing a class of very different conditions presenting the common characteristic of high blood glucose levels. Even in this regard, differences exist between hyperglycemias as regards their degree and their dependence upon the nature and the amount of the diet concerned. The chapter describes those diabetic states occurring clinically and produced experimentally which are not due primarily to a lack of insulin. Some of these hyperglycemic states may subsequently depend upon a lack of insulin for their persistence, but their geneses depend upon other factors.