December 25, 2018 : DCMS #429

DISASTERS AVERTED — Near Miss Case Studies

These were the most-read Disasters Averted published in 2018:

1. Can’t Afford Insulin? There Are Options!
2. Know the Difference When Choosing Between CGMs
3. What Not to Trust
4. When Changing from Daily to Weekly GLP-1, Make Sure Patient is Clear
5. Know Your Insulins, Teach Your Patient

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — Candid Video Interviews with Top Practitioners

In case you missed any of them, here’s a list of all our interviews with top endocrinologists and other medical professionals published this year.

2018 Interviews

HOMERUN SLIDES — Great Clinical Presentation Highlights

Endocrinology Jeopardy: Adrenal for $200!

CLINICAL GEMS — The Best from Diabetes Texts

International Textbook of Diabetes Mellitus, 4th Ed., Excerpt #157: Monogenic Disorders of the Beta Cell Part 7

When Steve and I started diabetesincontrol.com we would try our best to get the key opinion leaders and early adopters to speak with us. Oftentimes they were either too busy or we were just not important enough. Thanks to your readership and our perseverance we were able to break down those barriers, and now we often find these same people reaching out to us to share important information. As the year is coming to an end, we have prepared a single location where you can revisit with all our up close interviews of the best and brightest in diabetes care for 2018.

These interviewees read like a who’s who in diabetes research and care, and I encourage you to take another look as you prepare for the new year.

Thank you for all your readership and support over the past eighteen and one-half years and we, the entire staff at Diabetes in Control, wish you and your friends and family a very happy holiday season.

Dave Joffe

Editor-in-chief

We all know the benefits of the newer insulins, i.e., faster action times, less peak from the long actings, etc. But the cost, more often than we know, can lead to patients decreasing insulin doses, doing without until the next payday, or doing without it altogether, as we’ve read about. (See David Kliff’s recent article.) …

You may wonder which CGM monitor is best for your patients. I know I do.

Learn from Dr. Stephen W. Ponder, MD, FAAP, CDE-AADE Educator of the Year, Board Certified Pediatric Endocrinologist, Pediatric Residency Program Director at Baylor Scott & White McLane Children’s Hospital and 50 year Joslin Medalist. He also helps people with diabetes through the “sugar surfing” method to empower individuals who have diabetes to live fuller and more satisfying lives.

I received a call and glucose numbers from patient who has type 2 diabetes, usually with hyperglycemia, never hypoglycemia. I noticed there was at least a 12-hour span since the last glucose reading. His glucose levels after the over-12-hour lag showed hypoglycemia during the  night when the numbers start showing. His glucose averaged 53 during that time, but it has been running 150 and over, and we have been slowly increasing his insulin.

Man, 52 years of age, with obesity and type 2 diabetes, was switched from daily liraglutide (Victoza) 1.8mg to weekly semaglutide (Ozempic) 0.25mg. I was very clear with patient about the switch being from a daily injection to a weekly and that we would be increasing the semaglutide weekly.

Woman, 67 years of age, type 2 diabetes for 22 years, class II obesity. Has recently been managing her glucose levels with weight loss, using Tresiba, Trulicity, and metformin. Recent A1C 6.5%, which she’s worked hard for and been extremely proud of. She hasn’t had numbers like she has recently had for years.

Diabetes in Control speaks with top endocrinologists and other medical professionals to bring you the latest in diabetes news and research. Here’s a roundup of the interviews we published in 2018, so you can catch up on anything you may have missed.

In this week’s Homerun Slides, another question from the Adrenal category in Dr. Claude Lardinois’ Endocrinology Jeopardy! This week’s clue: 44 year old female with hypertension and type 2 diabetes.

Maternally inherited diabetes and deafness (MIDD) most commonly results from heteroplasmic G to A substitution of the mitochondrial DNA at nucleotide pair 3243 in one of the two tRNA(Leu) genes. The same mutation that causes MIDD also causes a syndrome of severe neuromuscular disease called MELAS (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke). Within a family there is usually a dominant phenotype, although occasionally some members develop MIDD whilst others develop MELAS.