My Wakelet

I’m playing with a new social sharing platform called Wakelet.  Click here for a local news article.

So what is Wakelet? It’s a web application that lets people, businesses and academic institutions organise links to online information into neatly-presented collections called ‘wakes’.

In a world of information overload, big data and real-time streams, search engines work hard to index the ever-growing amount of online information. While search algorithms help us find isolated pieces of information faster, they don’t know which ones are most relevant to us as individuals. Wakelet brings a human touch to this process by giving us the ability to easily collect and organise anything we read, view or listen to in a way that’s useful to us and to others.

Check out my diabetes Wakelet.  I’m toying with the idea of cataloguing the online articles I read rather than link one by one on the blog.  I started my wakes in November 2017 and we’ll see how it goes.  At first blush I don’t see this platform replacing my blogs.  But I think it may be useful for my followers to have one stop shopping for the fruits of my research.  Enjoy.

Abdominal Aortic Calcification Among Individuals With and Without Diabetes: The Jackson Heart Study

In the Jackson Heart Study (JHS), we examined the association of diabetes with abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) among African Americans. Among included individuals (n = 1,664), the mean age was 57 (± 11) years, 69% were female, and 18.3% had diabetes (based on fasting blood glucose [FBG], HbA1c, use of glucose-lowering medications, or physician diagnosis). The median AAC and coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores were 904.15 (interquartile range 0–1093.10) and 0 (0–96.19), respectively. The prevalence of any AAC or CAC was 69% and 49%, respectively. Individuals with diabetes were older, had higher BMI, had higher systolic blood pressure and prevalence of hypertension, had lower HDL levels, were less affluent or physically active, had poorer nutritional intake, and had higher levels of hs-CRP.

Source: Diabetes Care

Childhood obesity quadruples risk of developing type 2 diabetes- ScienceDaily

Children with obesity face four times the risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to children with a body mass index (BMI) in the normal range, according to a study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Source: Childhood obesity quadruples risk of developing type 2 diabetes: Large-scale UK study examines link between body mass index, metabolic health — ScienceDaily

I’m screwed again.

Hemoglobin A1c and Mortality in Older Adults With and Without Diabetes: Results From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1988–2011)

CONCLUSIONS An HbA1c >8.0% was associated with increased risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in older adults with diabetes. Our results support the idea that better glycemic control is important for reducing mortality; however, in light of the conflicting evidence base, there is also a need for individualized glycemic targets for older adults with diabetes depending on their demographics, duration of diabetes, and existing comorbidities.

Source: Diabetes Care

HgA1C and the Prediction of DM2

RESULTS – During long-term follow-up of children and adolescents who did not initially have diabetes, the incidence rate of subsequent diabetes was fourfold (in boys) as high and more than sevenfold (in girls) as high in those with HbA1c ≥5.7% as in those with HbA1c ≤5.3%—greater rate ratios than experienced by adults in the same HbA1c categories. Analyses of ROCs revealed no significant differences between HbA1c, FPG, and 2hPG in sensitivity and specificity for identifying children and adolescents who later developed diabetes. CONCLUSIONS – HbA1c is a useful predictor of diabetes risk in children and can be used to identify prediabetes in children with other type 2 diabetes risk factors with the same predictive value as FPG and 2hPG.

Source: Diabetes Care

Identifying Causes for Excess Mortality in Patients With Diabetes: Closer but Not There Yet – Diabetes Care

Diabetes is a chronic disease associated with increased morbidity and mortality (1), mainly from cardiovascular disease (2–6). Treatment of diabetes includes normalizing hyperglycemia to attain glycemic targets and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and dyslipidemia. This multifactorial intervention strategy has been shown to decrease cardiovascular and all-cause mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes (7). Nevertheless, mortality in diabetes remains elevated (2,5). A number of epidemiological studies have quantified the risk of death among patients with diabetes and assessed the causes of death (2–6), with highly varying results (Table 1). The South Tees Diabetes Mortality Study (2) found an over threefold increase in all-cause mortality, mainly attributed to increased cardiovascular deaths, but found no increased risk of cancer mortality. The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab) (3) of over 10,000 individuals reported a little over twofold increase in the risk of all-cause mortality, with the majority due to cardiovascular causes. The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration (ERFC) study (6), involving over 800,000 individuals, reported a little under twofold increase in the risk of all-cause mortality associated with diabetes. It also found that diabetes was associated with an increased risk of death from cancer (hazard ratio [HR] 1.25 [95% CI 1.19–1.31]), from vascular disease (HR 2.32 [95% CI 2.11–2.56]), and from nonvascular and noncancer etiologies (HR 1.73 [95% CI 1.62–1.85]).

Source: Identifying Causes for Excess Mortality in Patients With Diabetes: Closer but Not There Yet | Diabetes Care

Source: Risk of Cause-Specific Death in Individuals With Diabetes: A Competing Risks Analysis | Diabetes Care