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We randomized 749 insulin-treated patients on the rolls of the Mount Sinai Medical Center Diabetes Clinic in a controlled trial of diabetic patient education; 345 agreed to participate, of whom 165 were assigned to the education group and 180 to the control group. Cognitive scores increased from 5.3 +/- 1.6 to 5.8 +/- 1.6 in the education group, but there was no change in the control group, whose score was 5.3 +/- 1.7 before and after the intervention (P = .0073). HbA1c fell from 6.8 +/- 2.1 to 6.1 +/- 2.0% in the education group and from 6.6 +/- 2.0 to 6.3 +/- 2.0% in the control group, an insignificant difference (P = .1995). The fasting blood glucose decreased from 223 +/- 94 to 179 +/- 73 mg/dl in the education group and from 199 +/- 81 to 185 +/- 76 mg/dl in the controls (P = .1983). Triglycerides, high- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and insulin dosage also failed to show significant variation among groups. The foot-lesion score showed similar progression in the education and control groups. Neither diastolic nor systolic blood pressure showed significantly greater change in the education or the control group, with falls noted, particularly in diastolic pressures, in both patient groups. Differences between the groups were not significant for sick days, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, or outpatient visits. The sample sizes of the study and control populations were sufficiently large to detect a difference in means between the education and control groups in the HbA1c, the primary outcome variable, of greater than 1.0%, with alpha = .05 and a power of .95. Thus, our study suggests that patient education may not be an efficacious therapeutic intervention in most adults with insulin-treated diabetes mellitus.

We studied serum from 36 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) for the capacity to lyse beta cells. Immunofluorescence revealed an islet-cell cytoplasmic antibody (ICA) in 20 patients with IDDM and an islet-cell-surface antibody (ICSA) in 23. Neither ICA nor ICSA was found in any of 21 normal controls or 15 patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes. In the presence of complement. ICSA-positive serum caused significant lysis as measured by release of 51Cr (50.1 +/- 8.8 per cent) from cultured rat islet cells, but ICSA-negative serum did not (17.7 +/- 7.3 per cent) (P < 0.001). Proof that ICSA-positive serum was lytic for beta cells was obtained by a double-fluorescence technique that identified lysed cells by their capacity to take up ethidium bromide and beta cells by their staining with fluorescein-conjugated antibody to insulin. These findings suggest that cytotoxic ICSA contributes to the pathogenesis of IDDM, but the mere presence of ICSA does not appear to be sufficient to produce diabetes; family studies showed that one fourth of the serum samples from nondiabetic first-degree relatives of diabetic probands were ICSA-positive and cytotoxic for beta cells.

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An increased prevalence of Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes has been reported in patients with congenital rubella. Rubella virus multiplies in the pancreas, and we have hypothesized that studies of children with congenital rubella would be of great importance in following the development of Type 1 diabetes in a defined, susceptible population. Two hundred and forty-one children with congenital rubella (mean age 17.4 +/- 0.3 years; 65% black and hispanic) have been evaluated, 30 of whom already have diabetes and 17 of whom have borderline glucose tolerance. In these latter two groups, HLA-DR3 is significantly increased and HLA-DR2 significantly decreased. Pancreatic islet cell cytotoxic surface antibodies are found in 20% of the total congenital rubella population, including in more than 50% in the time period before they develop diabetes and are not related to any specific HLA type. In addition, anti-microsomal and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies are found in 34% of this population. The data demonstrate that Type 1 diabetes developing in congenital rubella patients has the genetic and immunological features of classical Type 1 diabetes, namely the presence of HLA-DR3, the absence of HLA-DR2, islet cell surface antibodies before decompensation and an increased prevalence of anti-thyroid antibodies. Patients with non-diabetic congenital rubella represent an easily identifiable group in whom other immunological factors associated with Type 1 diabetes can be elucidated and possibly modified.

Oral glucose tolerance tests (1.75 gm./kg. ideal body weight) were performed on sixty-six obese children and adolescents, four to sixteen years of age. Ten subjects of normal height and weight of the same age range and without a family history of diabetes served as controls. Plasma glucose, immunoreactive insulin, and free fatty acid levels were determined. Twenty-seven (45 per cent) of the subjects had normal tolerance, fifteen (23 per cent) had distinctly abnormal tolerance. Hyperinsulinemia was observed in nearly all the obese subjects, but it was significantly greater in those with abnormal tolerance than in those with normal tolerance. Free fatty acids fell rapidly after the ingestion of glucose in the majority of subjects. In some there was a delay in return to fasting levels. Thirty-four of the obese subjects had close diabetic relatives (diabetic family history [DHF+]) and thirty-two did not (DFH −). The incidence of moderately abnormal tolerance in the two groups, was the same but markedly abnormal tolerance was found only in the DFH + group. DFH + children had significantly greater elevations in insulin levels than DFH − children at both levels of tolerance. The DFH + subjects with severe hyperglycemia had somewhat increased levels of insulin occurring only after the first hour of the test. The hyperinsulinemia observed in the obese children in this study cannot be completely explained by compensatory overproduction due to peripheral resistance to insulin, and an alternate hypothesis is suggested.

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