Prediabetic Chinese hamsters born of two ketonurie diabetic parents were hyperphagic from birth. Carcass lipids and total solids were increased but plasma and pancreatic insulin were not, suggesting that hyperphagia was not due to hyperinsulinism, ttyperphagia was controlled by diet limitation of prediabetie pups. Diet limitation for the weaning period only did not alter development, of diabetes, but diet limitation for the first 150 days significantly reduced onset and severity. These 150 day diet-limited prediabeties were switched to nonrestricted feeding and subsequently developed mild diabetes. Prediabetie siblings, fed ad libitum, developed glucosuria and ketonuria, and died prematurely compared with diet-limited siblings. Prediabeties limited to a normal food intake for 30 months have remained essentially elinicM]y normal. The data strongly suggest that appetite control mechanisms are abnormal prior to clinical signs of diabetes in the prediabetic Chinese hamster and that control of hyperphagia will retard and ameliorate the course of diabetes.

The association between Diabetes and cancer has been known for decades with obesity and insulin resistance being postulated as the main underlying risk factors for both disorders. With rise of the epidemic of obesity in the USA and around the globe, there has been a rise in diabetes that is currently reaching epidemic proportions. Diabetes is known to be associated with increased risk of several types of malignancy including breast, cervical, pancreatic and colon cancer. In this review, we discuss the epidemic of obesity and its consequential epidemic of diabetes highlighting the pathophysiologic mechanisms of increased cancer in the diabetic population. We will then discuss the role of insulin therapy as well as, other antidiabetic medications, particularly metformin that has been to be associated with lower risk as well as better survival with GI malignancies based on several studies including a study that was recently published by our group.

Lemierre’s syndrome (LS) is an uncommon clinical entity characterized by a primary oropharyngeal infection with subsequent septic thrombophlebitis. Diagnosis is made with clinical or radiographic evidence of internal jugular vein (IJV) thrombosis, along with metastatic focus such as lungs or joints. Life threatening thrombocytopenia in Lemierre’s syndrome in the absence of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is rarely reported. We present a case of a 41-year-old woman with Lemierre’s syndrome caused by beta-hemolytic group C streptococci and fusobacterium species manifested as worsening pharyngitis, IJV thrombosis, and complicated by severe thrombocytopenia.

No abstract