The Hospital Authority of Hong Kong is a statutory body that manages all the public medical care institutions in Hong Kong. There are currently around 400,000 diabetic patients under its care at 17 hospitals (providing secondary care for 40%) and 73 General Outpatient Clinics (providing primary care for 60%). The patient population has been growing at 6% to 8% per year over the past 5 years, estimated to include over 95% of all diagnosed patients in Hong Kong. In order to provide equitable and a minimal level of care within resources and local system factors constraints, a Clinical Practice Guideline on the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus was drawn in 2013 to guide a system approach to providing diabetes care. There is an algorithm for the use of various hypoglycemic agents. An organizational drug formulary governs that less expansive options have to be used first. A number of clinical care and patient empowerment programs have been set up to support structured and systematic diabetes care. With such a system approach, there have been overall improvements in diabetes care with the percentage of patients with glycosylated hemoglobin <7% rising from 40% in 2010 to 52% in 2015.
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Obesity has quickly become a worldwide pandemic, causing major adverse health outcomes such as dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and cancers. Obesity-induced insulin resistance is the key for developing these metabolic disorders, and investigation to understand the molecular mechanisms involved has been vibrant for the past few decades. Of these, low-grade chronic inflammation is suggested as a critical concept in the development of obesity-induced insulin resistance, and the anti-inflammatory effect of nitric oxide (NO) signaling has been reported to be linked to improvement of insulin resistance in multiple organs involved in glucose metabolism. Recently, a body of evidence suggested that vasodilatory-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP), a downstream mediator of NO signaling plays a crucial role in the anti-inflammatory effect and improvement of peripheral insulin resistance. These preclinical studies suggest that NO/VASP signaling could be an ideal therapeutic target in the treatment of obesity-related metabolic dysfunction. In this review, we introduce studies that investigated the protective role of NO/VASP signaling against obesity-related inflammation and insulin resistance in various tissues.
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Despite the established benefits of diabetes camps for the continuing education of children with type 1 diabetes mellitus, little is known about the long-term metabolic benefits of diabetes camps for middle-aged and elderly people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), especially in terms of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) variability.
The 1-year mean and variability of HbA1c before and after the diabetes camp was compared between the participants of the diabetes camp (
The levels of HbA1c during the first year after the diabetes camp were comparable to those of the matched controls (
The 1-year mean and SD of HbA1c decreased after the diabetes camp, with significant reduction in the adjusted SD and CV in those with higher baseline HbA1c and a shorter duration of diabetes.
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Few studies have examined the association between mercury exposure and obesity. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between blood mercury concentrations and indices of obesity in adults.
A total of 200 healthy subjects, aged 30 to 64 years, who had no history of cardiovascular or malignant disease, were examined. Anthropometric and various biochemical profiles were measured. Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).
All subjects were divided into three groups according to blood mercury concentrations. Compared with the subjects in the lowest tertile of mercury, those in the highest tertile were more likely to be male; were current alcohol drinkers and smokers; had a higher body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and VAT; had higher levels of blood pressure, fasting glucose, and insulin resistance; and consumed more fish. The blood mercury concentration was significantly associated with anthropometric parameters, showing relationships with BMI, WC, and VAT. After adjusting for multiple risk factors, the odds ratios (ORs) for high mercury concentration was significantly higher in the highest VAT tertile than in the lowest VAT tertile (OR, 2.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.05 to 6.62;
The blood mercury concentration was significantly associated with VAT in healthy adults. Further studies are warranted to confirm our findings.
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The proportion of saturated fatty acids/unsaturated fatty acids in the diet seems to act as a physiological regulation on obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Differently composed fatty acid diets may induce satiety of the hypothalamus in different ways. However, the direct effect of the different fatty acid diets on satiety in the hypothalamus is not clear.
Three experiments in mice were conducted to determine whether: different compositions of fatty acids affects gene mRNA expression of the hypothalamus over time; different types of fatty acids administered into the stomach directly affect gene mRNA expression of the hypothalamus; and fat composition changes in the diet affects gene mRNA expression of the hypothalamus.
The type of fat in cases of purified fatty acid administration directly into the stomach may cause changes of gene expressions in the hypothalamus. Gene expression by dietary fat may be regulated by calorie amount ingested rather than weight amount or type of fat.
Therefore, the calorie density factor of the diet in regulating hypothalamic gene in food intake may be detrimental, although the possibility of type of fat cannot be ruled out.
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Diabetic nephropathy is a major complication of diabetes and an established risk factor for cardiovascular events. Lipid abnormalities occur in patients with diabetic nephropathy, which further increase their risk for cardiovascular events. We compared the degree of dyslipidemia among type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) subjects with and without nephropathy and analyzed the factors associated with nephropathy among them.
In this retrospective study, T2DM patients with overt nephropathy were enrolled in the study group (
Dyslipidemia was present among 56.52% of control subjects and 75.28% of nephropathy subjects (
Our results show that dyslipidemia was highly prevalent among subjects with nephropathy. Regular screening for dyslipidemia may be beneficial in controlling the risk for adverse events among diabetic nephropathy patients.
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TLR4 Polymorphisms (896A>G and 1196C>T) Affect the Predisposition to Diabetic Nephropathy in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Prevalence and Associated Factors of Dyslipidemia Among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Saudi Arabia
This is a subgroup analysis of Korean patients from a phase 3 clinical trial investigating the efficacy and safety of ipragliflozin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus inadequately controlled with metformin.
This multicenter, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group study was carried out between November 2011 and January 2013. Patients entered a 2-week placebo pretreatment period, followed by a 24-week treatment period with either ipragliflozin (50 mg/day) or placebo, while continuing metformin. Efficacy outcomes (glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c], fasting plasma glucose [FPG], and body weight) and safety outcomes (treatment-emergent adverse events [TEAEs]) were measured and compared between the two treatment groups for patients enrolled in all 18 study sites in Korea.
Eighty-two Korean patients received ipragliflozin (
Ipragliflozin treatment in addition to metformin led to significant improvement in glycemic outcomes and reduction in body weight in Korean patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, compared with metformin treatment alone; the safety profile was comparable in both groups.
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SGLT2 Inhibitors as Add-On Therapy to Metformin for People with Type 2 Diabetes: A Review of Placebo-Controlled Trials in Asian versus Non-Asian Patients
Previous studies showed that early age at menarche is associated with increased risk of metabolic syndrome. However, the definition of early menarche at these studies was based on background data in the communities at which these studies was carried on. The aim of this work is to determine a cutoff for age at menarche discriminating presence or absence of metabolic syndrome in overweight/obese premenopausal women. This study included 204 overweight/obese women. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to NCEP-ATP III (National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III) criteria. Of a total 204 participants, 82 (40.2%) had metabolic syndrome. By using receiver operating characteristic analysis, age at menarche ≤12.25 year discriminated individuals with from those without metabolic syndrome. The area under the curve was 0.76 (95% confidence interval, 0.70 to 0.83). Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value were 82%, 70%, 85%, and 64%, respectively. Age at menarche ≤12.25 years predicts the presence of metabolic syndrome in overweight/obese women.
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