1.What is diabetes mellitus?
Diabetes is a chronic, systemic, metabolic disease caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors over a long period of time, characterized by increased plasma glucose levels, mainly due to the disruption of sugar, fat and protein metabolism caused by insufficient secretion or impaired action of insulin in the body, which affects normal physiological activities.
2.What are the clinical manifestations of diabetes mellitus?
(1) Typical symptoms of diabetes mellitus: “three more and one less”, i.e. drinking more, urinating more, eating more and losing weight.
The majority of diabetic patients, especially those with type 2 diabetes, do not have any symptoms, or only some unnoticeable discomfort, and if they do not pay attention to it, some other complications will appear only slowly with the development of diabetes.
(2) Atypical symptoms of diabetes mellitus.
● Recurrent boils and carbuncles, skin injuries or wounds that do not heal after surgery.
● Itchy skin, especially vulvar itching or urinary tract infections in women.
● Unexplained loss of vision and blurred vision in both eyes.
● Unexplained loss of sexual function, erectile dysfunction (impotence) in men.
● Premature onset of hypertension, coronary artery disease or stroke.
● Numbness and burning sensation in the lower limbs.
● Protein in the urine (trace or significant proteinuria).
3. Who is prone to develop diabetes?
● Family history of diabetes
Overweight, obese
● Eating a lot and moving little
● Age >45 years old
● Low weight at birth <5 pounds
● History of abnormal delivery. Such as a history of unexplained multiple miscarriages, stillbirths
Stillbirth, preterm birth, malformed or huge babies, etc.
4.What are the characteristics of diabetes mellitus?
● Common diseases
Lifelong disease
Controllable disease
● Diseases that need to be partially managed
● A disease with changing conditions
5.Diabetes type
● Type 1 diabetes.
(1) It accounts for about 10% of all diabetes mellitus, and is most common in children and adolescents, and the age of onset is usually less than 30 years old. The onset of the disease is usually rapid, with symptoms such as polyphagia, polyuria, polydipsia and weight loss being more obvious. ③Poor islet function, low plasma C-peptide level or even
(3) Poor pancreatic function, low or even undetectable plasma C-peptide level, and lifelong insulin injection therapy are required to maintain survival. ④The condition fluctuates greatly and is not easily controlled, and ketoacidosis may occur easily. (5) High positivity rate of related antibodies such as blood glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody (GAD), insulin cell antibody (ICA) and or insulin autoantibody (IAA), with the highest rate of GAD positivity. (6) It is prone to other autoimmune diseases, such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Addison’s disease, vitiligo, autoimmune hepatitis, pernicious anemia, etc.
● Type 2 diabetes.
① accounts for about 90% of the total number of diabetes mellitus, mostly seen in adults, with a high incidence above the age of 40. ② There is a clear genetic tendency, and most have a family history of diabetes. ③In the early stage, most of them are overweight or obese body shape, the disease is milder, and most of them have no obvious clinical symptoms. Very few of them have an acute onset, showing polydipsia, polyuria, ketosis and need temporary insulin treatment. ④Antibodies such as GAD, ICA and IAA are mostly negative. ⑤In the early stage, exercise and diet control or oral hypoglycemic drugs are mainly used, and insulin injection is not needed to maintain life.
6. The incidence of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents is also on the rise
With the improvement of living standards, the number of children and adolescents with diabetes currently accounts for about 5% of diabetes patients in China, and is increasing by 10% every year. At present, the number of diabetic patients in preschool children is increasing at a rate of 5% per year worldwide, and the average number of diabetic patients in people under 15 years old increases by 200 per day, so the problem of diabetes in adolescents deserves the attention of the whole society.
7.How is diabetes diagnosed?
● Symptoms of diabetes (typical symptoms include polyhydramnios, polyuria and unexplained weight loss) plus any of the following: plasma glucose level ≥ 11.1 mmol/L (200 mg/dL) at any time or fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level ≥ 7.0 mmol/L (126 mg/dL) or oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in which 2-hour blood glucose ( 2hPG) level ≥ 11.1 mmol/L (200 mg/dL).
● In the absence of diabetic symptoms, the above blood glucose should be repeated on another day
● The diagnostic criteria for diabetes in children are the same as those for adults.