Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a common long-term neurovascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) with a major impact on quality of life, is one of the leading causes of visual impairment worldwide. 1-3 Although the vascular component of its pathogenesis is undisputable, the importance of neurodegenerative and inflammatory processes in the retina has emerged only recently. 4 The functionality of the neurovascular unit and the integrity of the blood-retina barrier depend on the function and communication of neural, glial, and vascular cells. Alterations of the neurovascular unit seem to precede the subclinical functional and morphological abnormalities. 5-7 Although much remains to be explored about the primary pathogenesis of DR, hyperglycemia is undoubtedly the initial in the
This report proves the successful initiation of pancreatic islet transplantation in a center with a well-established PTx program. ITx has been shown to be the method of choice for hypoglycemia unawareness syndrome, and may be considered for application in clinical practice if conservative options are exhausted.
Summary: Chronic pancreatitis with repeated painful relapses is a severe multifactorial, fibroinflammatory syndrome that significantly affects the quality of life of patients, mainly in terms of pain, development of diabetes mellitus, and repeated attacks of acute pancreatitis. Autologous islet transplantation after total pancreatectomy is a potential option in selected patients with severe, recurrent painful episodes of chronic pancreatitis. In our case, we present a patient with severe recurrent chronic pancreatitis. The patient required frequent hospitalizations with repeated stenting of the pancreatic duct. After the confirmation of a genetic mutation, the members of the multidisciplinary session decided to perform a total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation. In this case, we present the first international islet cell autotransplantation of Langerhans islets in Slovakia after total pancreatectomy in a patient with chronic hereditary pancreatitis. Key words: hereditary pancreatitis – total pancreatectomy – autotransplantation of Langerhans islets
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