Can Chrono-Nutrition Help Prevent Diabetes?

This editorial aimed to put forward a question if chrono-nutrition can help prevent diabetes through optimizing circadian rhythms of glucose metabolism. With the advancing mechanization, eating behavior (timing, sequence, and frequency) has changed. People are now more willing to eat fast foods at suboptimal times of the circadian period. Growing evidence suggests that untimely eating and lack of exercise can interfere with optimal physiological rhythms of glucose and insulin metabolism that can lead to diabetes. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is a foremost metabolic disorder worldwide occurring largely due to suboptimal eating timing and lifestyle. Consuming less sugars and carbohydrates during evening and overnight may help optimize human chrono-physiology. Chrono-nutrition via optimizing the timing of meals is a growing science that needs to be well practiced to help prevent or possibly reduce risks of T2D in today’s complicated life.

Mechanisms of macro-, micro- and ultramicroscopic transformation of bodies in diabetes

The study of structural changes of organs and tissues in the context of diabetes is one of the urgent problems of modern medicine. According to WHO, in all countries of the world the number of patients with diabetes exceeds 175 million. According to an expert estimate of the spread of this disease by 2025 will make about 300 million people. More than 1 million people with diabetes have been officially registered in Ukraine. WHO has recognized the disease as a non-communicable epidemic. The dramatic increase in the prevalence of diabetes requires a detailed study of this problem. It is established that the prevalence of diabetes increases among the population of the countries of the world depending on the region, the level of economic development of the country, gender and age. Thus, according to IDF findings, there is a tendency for the highest prevalence of diabetes among the urban (urban) able-bodied population of developing countries in persons between 40 and 59 years of age, approximately equal in both male and female. The number of patients is increasing, mainly due to patients with type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes (type 2 diabetes mellitus) is a severe progressive chronic disease that is an independent risk factor for heart failure (CH) and cardiovascular complications. In the XXI century. the steady growth of type 2 diabetes and the frequency of its serious consequences is of great concern to the world medical community. It is important that at the time of diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, the prevalence of complications leading to a decline in quality of life, early disability and premature death is already high enough. Despite the presence in the fight against this disease effective drugs, modern technologies, new educational and preventive techniques, mankind loses the fight against diabetes year after year, which leads to disability due to its complications, reducing the life expectancy and quality of life of patients, loss working capacity and premature mortality. Thus, the current prevalence and incidence of diabetes and life-threatening complications suggest that there is a non-communicable diabetes epidemic in the world and in Ukraine in particular. The article represents analysis of work of numerous researchers who studied statistіcal, clinical and morphological aspects of the impact of diabetes on cardiovascular system. Main morphogenetic, morphological and clinical aspects of complications of diabetes, pathologies of microcirculation of patients with diabetes were dedicated, what makes possible to predict and detect on the early stages vascular complications in diabetes and to perform effective prevention and treatment.

Estimation of metformin and other sugar reducing therapy influence on the outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndrome and diabetes mellitus type II

Aim. To study the influence of hypoglycemic therapy on hospital and long-term prognosis in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and diabetes type 2.Methods. The study included 63 patients with ACS and type 2 diabetes. All patients had a clinical examination, assessment of mortality risk and myocardial infarction on GRACE scale (Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events) and TIMI (Thrombolisis In Myocardial Infarction) in-hospital and six months after hospitalization.Results. Metformin is associated with a lower estimated risk of in-hospital mortality and within 6 months after discharge in patients with acute coronary syndrome on the background of type 2 diabetes and with less risk of adverse cardiovascular events within 14 days of their occurrence in patients with unstable angina pectoris on the background of diabetes. High daily doses of metformin have also been associated with a decrease in the estimated risk of in-hospital mortality and within 6 months after discharge in patients with ACS associated with diabetes. The inverse association between the daily dosage of metformin and the presence of angina pectoris in patients with ACS and diabetes type 2 indicates a protective effect of metformin high daily dosages in relation to the risk of complications within six months after the discharge from hospital.Conclusion. One of the important aspects of ACS treatment, along with effective therapy, is the impact on concomitant risk factors, including blood glucose control. The main groups of hypoglycemic drugs have currently been identified; their effect on cardiovascular events, long-term effects and long-term prognosis are being investigated.

Senile Cataract in Patients with Diabetes with and Without Diabetic Retinopathy: A Community-Based Comparative Study

Aim We compare the incidence rates of cataract in persons with diabetes with and without diabetic retinopathy in Saudi Arabia, for the first time. In addition, we explored the role of new factor, diabetes age of onset and several other known factors. Methods In a community-based cross-sectional study, 334 persons with diabetes type 2 were randomly selected from a diabetic register. Detailed history and comprehensive ophthalmic examination was done at an eye clinic. Body Mass Index, blood pressure and glycosylated hemoglobin were also recorded. Results In 668 eyes, cataract and diabetic retinopathy were present in 35.5% and 32.2%, respectively. Diabetic retinopathy, age, duration of diabetes and systolic BP were found to be independent risk factors for cataract. Whereas, gender, BMI, HbA1c use of insulin and diastolic BP have no significant association with cataract. Persons with cataract had significantly higher age of onset of diabetes. Most of the cataracts were cortical followed by PSC, while minority were nuclear. Conclusion DR is an independent risk factor of developing cataract in persons with diabetes. Others are age, duration of DM and hypertension. Age-of-onset of DM is a new factor we report it to be significantly associated with cataract.

Clustering Inflammatory Markers with Sociodemographic and Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Diabetes Type 2 Can Support Family Physicians’ Clinical Reasoning by Reducing Patients’ Complexity

Diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) is a complex disease associated with chronic inflammation, end-organ damage, and multiple comorbidities. Initiatives are emerging for a more personalized approach in managing DM2 patients. We hypothesized that by clustering inflammatory markers with variables indicating the sociodemographic and clinical contexts of patients with DM2, we could gain insights into the hidden phenotypes and the underlying pathophysiological backgrounds thereof. We applied the k-means algorithm and a total of 30 variables in a group of 174 primary care (PC) patients with DM2 aged 50 years and above and of both genders. We included some emerging markers of inflammation, specifically, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the cytokines IL-17A and IL-37. Multiple regression models were used to assess associations of inflammatory markers with other variables. Overall, we observed that the cytokines were more variable than the marker NLR. The set of inflammatory markers was needed to indicate the capacity of patients in the clusters for inflammatory cell recruitment from the circulation to the tissues, and subsequently for the progression of end-organ damage and vascular complications. The hypothalamus–pituitary–thyroid hormonal axis, in addition to the cytokine IL-37, may have a suppressive, inflammation-regulatory role. These results can help PC physicians with their clinical reasoning by reducing the complexity of diabetic patients.

The influence of polymorphic variants rs2305619 и rs3816527 of the PTX3 gene on clinical profile and outcomes in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: results of a 11-years follow-up

The objective of this study was to determine the association of polymorphic variants rs2305619 and rs3816527 of the PTX3 gene with clinical profile and outcomes in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients.Methods and materials. The study population consisted of 153 patients ≥18 years old with a confirmed diagnosis of HCM. The control group included 200 healthy donors. Duration of follow-up was 11 years (2008–2019 yrs.). The study design included a new model for determining variants of the clinical profile and outcomes of HCM. Polymorphic variants rs2305619 and rs3816527 of the PTX3 gene were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction.Results. The mortality rate in patients ≥18 years old with 1, 2 and 3 adverse pathways of HCM progression was significantly higher, compared with those without adverse pathways (р<0.001). A combination of chronic heart failure (CHF) with midrange and reduced LVEF (<49 %) with 1, 2 and 3 adverse pathways in HCM patients occurred more frequently, compared with those who had CHF with preserved LVEF (≥50 %) (odds ratio (OR) = 0.168, 95 % confidence interval (CI) =0.068–0.412, р<0.001). The genetic testing showed no significant differences in genotype and allele frequencies of polymorphic variants rs2305619 and rs3816527 of the PTX3 gene in patients with HCM and control groups. It was found a tendency for increase in GG genotype frequency (p<0.068) and significant increase in G allele frequency of rs2305619 of the PTX3 gene in HCM patients ≥18 years old and CHF with mid-range and reduced LVEF (<49 %) (A:G, OR=0.521, 95 % CI=0.301–0.902, p<0.019). HCM patients (age – 63 [58; 75] years) and type 2 diabetes mellitus demonstrated high prevalence in AG and GG genotypes (p<0.008) and G allele frequencies of rs2305619 of the PTX3 gene (A:G, OR =1.952, 95 % CI=1.076–3.542, p<0.026).Conclusions. HCM progression along 1 and more adverse pathways in patients ≥18 years old has been characterized with adverse outcome. G allele of rs2305619 of the PTX3 gene is associated with CHF with mid-range and reduced LVEF (<49 %) in HCM patients ≥18 years old. The associations of G allele and AG and GG genotypes of rs2305619 of the PTX3 gene with diabetes type 2 are observed in elderly HCM patients.

The Use of Berberine in Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome: Two Sides of the Same Coin. A Bibliometric Analysis

: The increased prevalence of obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes has prompted scientists to look for new active and safe molecules that may help the prevention of metabolic disorders: hyperglycemia, insulin-resistance, dyslipidemia. Berberine is an alkaloid compound derived from plants, and it is largely used in traditional chinese medicine. The aim of this study is to investigate in SCOPUS and Web of Science (WOS) databases how the scientists focused on the use of berberine against metabolic disorders, in human subjects. We carried A bibliometric analysis of scientific literature and performed 2 searches: 1) “Berberine” AND “Diabetes” AND “Diabetes Type 2”, 2) “Berberine” AND “Metabolic Syndrome”, both in ARTICLE (Title/Abstract/Keyword) with a time limitation of 1 January 2000 through 31 December 2018, with the filter on “HUMAN” AND/OR “HUMANS”. The research sorted out 500 papers, finding about 300 (60 %) in the first search definition, and 200 (40 %) in the second. The refined research sorted out 46 papers regarding the use of berberine in diabetes, and 40 articles on the use of the alkaloid compound in the metabolic Syndrome. For both topics, we found increasing interest between 2008 and 2009, with citation trends in a constant crescendo in the overall period studied. These findings underlined that berberine is a safe and interesting botanical compound, especially against chronic-metabolic disorder that affects billions of people globally, and emphasized that scientists are interested in searching for long-term therapies that show no major adverse effects.

Mining sequences with exceptional transition behaviour of varying order using quality measures based on information-theoretic scoring functions

Discrete Markov chains are frequently used to analyse transition behaviour in sequential data. Here, the transition probabilities can be estimated using varying order Markov chains, where order k specifies the length of the sequence history that is used to model these probabilities. Generally, such a model is fitted to the entire dataset, but in practice it is likely that some heterogeneity in the data exists and that some sequences would be better modelled with alternative parameter values, or with a Markov chain of a different order. We use the framework of Exceptional Model Mining (EMM) to discover these exceptionally behaving sequences. In particular, we propose an EMM model class that allows for discovering subgroups with transition behaviour of varying order. To that end, we propose three new quality measures based on information-theoretic scoring functions. Our findings from controlled experiments show that all three quality measures find exceptional transition behaviour of varying order and are reasonably sensitive. The quality measure based on Akaike’s Information Criterion is most robust for the number of observations. We furthermore add to existing work by seeking for subgroups of sequences, as opposite to subgroups of transitions. Since we use sequence-level descriptive attributes, we form subgroups of entire sequences, which is practically relevant in situations where you want to identify the originators of exceptional sequences, such as patients. We show this relevance by analysing sequences of blood glucose values of adult persons with diabetes type 2. In the experiments, we find subgroups of patients based on age and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), a measure known to correlate with average blood glucose values. Clinicians and domain experts confirmed the transition behaviour as estimated by the fitted Markov chain models.