Professional Section Quarterly - Summer 2012 - (Page 3)

72nd Scientific Sessions News Even more concerning is that complications like nerve damage and early indicators of kidney and heart disease are already emerging in this population. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes increased 21 percent among American youth from 2001 to 2009, while type 1 diabetes rose 23 percent. The study found that there were nearly 189,000 Americans under the age of 20 with diabetes during the study period; of those, approximately 168,000 had type 1 and more than 19,000 had type 2 diabetes. Researchers believe that increasing obesity rates are at least partly to blame for the rise in type 2 diabetes among youth; the rise in prevalence of type 1, however, is less easily explained. Researchers are currently investigating several theories. From the TODAY study, the largest—and first longitudinal— study to look at the efficacy and safety of medications to treat young people with type 2 diabetes, we learned that children with type 2 exhibit a high rate of early complications and a relatively early need for combination therapy or insulin. Researchers found that those children who had good glycemic control (as evidenced by A1C levels in the normal range) after two to four months on metformin were more likely to maintain that control for at least 48 months than those whose A1C levels were greater than 6.1 percent after the first few months of treatment with metformin. The good news from this study is that nearly half of the children were successfully treated with a known, available therapy. More research is needed to determine how best to treat the other 50 percent for whom metformin therapy was insufficient for maintaining glycemic control. The TODAY study results emphasize the critical need for new treatments for youth by revealing the high rate at which comorbidities develop relatively rapidly after the onset of the disease. Nearly one-third of the children in the study exhibited high blood pressure by the end of the continued on page 4 T he American Diabetes Association’s 72nd Scientific Sessions, the world’s largest diabetes meeting, brought together global experts on diabetes for five days of scientific presentations, discussions, and analyses of cutting-edge research on type 1 and type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, prediabetes, and obesity and other risk factors. Held June 8–12, 2012, in Philadelphia, the meeting drew nearly 18,000 participants— including more than 14,000 clinicians and researchers—from all 50 states and 111 countries. Convening the world’s top experts in basic, clinical, and behavioral research, clinical care, and diabetes education on an annual basis at ADA’s Scientific Sessions has helped improve the lives of people with diabetes by shaping the direction of research, technology, and care. This year’s program included 800 speakers addressing participants in 94 symposia, 49 oral abstract sessions, and nine interest group discussions. In addition, nearly 1,800 abstracts were given as poster presentations. Diabetes in Youth From the SEARCH trial, the first analysis of diabetes trends among American youth, we learned that the past decade witnessed an alarming increase in the prevalence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in adolescents. Professional Section Quarterly 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Professional Section Quarterly - Summer 2012

Professional Section Quarterly - Summer 2012