Diabetes In Control. A free weekly diabetes newsletter for Medical Professionals. News and information for Medical Professionals.
Over the past month, I’ve done 20 hours of CE including a full day becoming certified at immunizations. In our area, every pharmacy, doctor’s office and walk-in clinic offers flu shots, and as we move into the fall, the volume of flu shots given will grow exponentially. Even with the ease that our patients can get a flu shot, rates are low. Often we focus on the elderly patients but, according to new information from the CDC, patients with diabetes should get their shots now.
When exenatide first came out, data showed that this mimetic of GLP-1 worked subcutaneously when an exact copy of GLP-1 did not. This was because an enzyme — later identified as DPP-4 — broke down the native-like GLP within 2 minutes of release. At the time, there was also some commentary about the potential success of IV GLP-1 at overcoming this enzymatic breakdown. Now a new study published in Diabetologia shows that IV adminstration of the GLP-1 analogs is far superior to SubQ administration.
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Dave Joffe, Editor-in-chief