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Aim To investigate the impact of glycaemic control on infection incidence in people with Type 2 diabetes. Methods We compared infection rates during 2014 in people with Type 2 diabetes and people without diabetes in a large primary care cohort in the UK (the Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre database). We performed multilevel logistic regression to investigate the impact of Type 2 diabetes on presentation with infection, and the effect of glycaemic control on presentation with upper respiratory tract infections, bronchitis, influenza-like illness, pneumonia, intestinal infectious diseases, herpes simplex, skin and soft tissue infections, urinary tract infections, and genital and perineal infections. People with Type 2 diabetes were stratified by good [HbA1c < 53 mmol/mol (< 7%)], moderate [HbA1c 53-69 mmol/mol (7-8.5%)] and poor [HbA1c > 69 mmol/mol (> 8.5%)] glycaemic control using their most recent HbA1c concentration. Infection incidence was adjusted for important sociodemographic factors and patient comorbidities. Results We identified 34 278 people with Type 2 diabetes and 613 052 people without diabetes for comparison. The incidence of infections was higher in people with Type 2 diabetes for all infections except herpes simplex. Worsening glycaemic control was associated with increased incidence of bronchitis, pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections, urinary tract infections, and genital and perineal infections, but not with upper respiratory tract infections, influenza-like illness, intestinal infectious diseases or herpes simplex. Conclusions Almost all infections analysed were more common in people with Type 2 diabetes. Infections that are most commonly of bacterial, fungal or yeast origin were more frequent in people with worse glycaemic control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cholera toxin-induced intestinal secretion in intact rats requires a functioning myenteric plexus. The aim of this investigation was to determine whether neural elements were essential for cholera toxin to produce a secretory effect in human isolated ileum. Mucosal preparations were mounted in Ussing chambers. Cholera toxin was applied apically and short-circuit current monitored for 3 hr, at which point forskolin was given. Cholera toxin (10 microg/ml) induced a tetrodotoxin-insensitive increase in short-circuit current in muscle-stripped preparations of human ileum. The increase was not additive with the action of forskolin (25 microM). Cholera toxin exerts a marked nonneural secretory effect in human ileal mucosa in vitro, probably by the same mechanism as forskolin, namely elevation of cyclic AMP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ethnicity recording within primary care computerised medical record (CMR) systems is suboptimal, exacerbated by tangled taxonomies within current coding systems.Objective To develop a method for extending ethnicity identification using routinely collected data., Methods: We used an ontological method to maximise the reliability and prevalence of ethnicity information in the Royal College of General Practitioner's Research and Surveillance database. Clinical codes were either directly mapped to ethnicity group or utilised as proxy markers (such as language spoken) from which ethnicity could be inferred. We compared the performance of our method with the recording rates that would be identified by code lists utilised by the UK pay for the performance system, with the help of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF)., Results: Data from 2,059,453 patients across 110 practices were included. The overall categorisable ethnicity using QOF codes was 36.26% (95% confidence interval (CI): 36.20%-36.33%). This rose to 48.57% (CI:48.50%-48.64%) using the described ethnicity mapping process. Mapping increased across all ethnic groups. The largest increase was seen in the white ethnicity category (30.61%; CI: 30.55%-30.67% to 40.24%; CI: 40.17%-40.30%). The highest relative increase was in the ethnic group categorised as the other (0.04%; CI: 0.03%-0.04% to 0.92%; CI: 0.91%-0.93%)., Conclusions: This mapping method substantially increases the prevalence of known ethnicity in CMR data and may aid future epidemiological research based on routine data.

Background: Diabetes confers a two times excess risk of cardiovascular disease, yet predicting individual risk remains challenging. The effect of total microvascular disease burden on cardiovascular disease risk among individuals with diabetes is unknown., Methods: A population-based cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink was studied (n=49 027). We used multivariable Cox models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the primary outcome (the time to first major cardiovascular event, which was a composite of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, or non-fatal ischaemic stroke) associated with cumulative burden of retinopathy, nephropathy, and peripheral neuropathy among individuals with no history of cardiovascular disease at baseline., Findings: During a median follow-up of 5·5 years, 2822 (5·8%) individuals experienced a primary outcome. After adjustment for established risk factors, significant associations were observed for the primary outcome individually for retinopathy (HR 1·39, 95% CI 1·09-1·76), peripheral neuropathy (1·40, 1·19-1·66), and nephropathy (1·35, 1·15-1·58). For individuals with one, two, or three microvascular disease states versus none, the multivariable-adjusted HRs for the primary outcome were 1·32 (95% CI 1·16-1·50), 1·62 (1·42-1·85), and 1·99 (1·70-2·34), respectively. For the primary outcome, measures of risk discrimination showed significant improvement when microvascular disease burden was added to models. In the overall cohort, the net reclassification index for USA and UK guideline risk strata were 0·036 (95% CI 0·017-0·055, p<0·0001) and 0·038 (0·013-0·060, p<0·0001), respectively., Interpretation: The cumulative burden of microvascular disease significantly affects the risk of future cardiovascular disease among individuals with type 2 diabetes. Given the prevalence of diabetes globally, further work to understand the mechanisms behind this association and strategies to mitigate this excess risk are warranted., Funding: Circulation Foundation., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)