In most populations studied, birth weight was inversely related to type 2 diabetes risk.

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Prospective measurements were made of serum C-reactive protein levels and erythrocyte sedimentation rate in sixty-four patients with Crohn's disease and fifty with ulcerative colitis. The results were related to clinical assessment of disease activity. C-reactive protein levels were raised in both groups but were significantly higher in Crohn's disease than ulcerative colitis for all categories of disease severity: with mild disease the median and range of C-reactive protein concentration were 4, 0-65 mg/l in Crohn's disease v. 0, 0-15 mg/l in ulcerative colitis, P less than 0.01; in moderate disease the values were 15, 1-100 mg/l v. 3, 0-29 mg/l respectively, P less than 0.05 and in cases of severe disease, 85, 15-183 mg/l v. 12, 2-33 mg/l respectively, P less than 0.001. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate was also higher in Crohn's disease but did not closely reflect disease activity in individual patients. C-reactive protein levels corresponded closely with clinical and pathological indices of relapse, remission and response to therapy in patients with Crohn's disease. The precise assay of serum C-reactive protein provides an objective criterion of inflammatory activity, which may be useful in the assessment, management and study of Crohn's disease.

OBJECTIVE -To determine possible differences in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in the Saskatoon Health District.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -This was a prospective survey of all women admitted for childbirth to the Saskatoon Royal University Hospital between January and July 1998. We compared prevalence rates, risk factors, and outcomes of GDM between aboriginal and non-aboriginal women.RESULTS -Information was obtained from 2,006 women, of whom 252 aboriginal and 1,360 non-aboriginal subjects had been tested for GDM. The overall rates of GDM were 3.5% for women in the general population and 11.5% for aboriginal women. For those living within the Saskatoon Health District, GDM rates were 3.7 and 6.4%, respectively. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that aboriginal ethnicity, most notably when combined with obesity, was an independent predictor for GDM. Pregravid BMI Ն27 kg/m 2 and maternal age Ն33 years were the most important risk factors for GDM in aboriginal women, whereas previous GDM, family history of diabetes, and maternal age Ն38 years were the strongest predictors for GDM in non-aboriginal women.CONCLUSIONS -There may be fundamental differences in GDM between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. Because GDM contributes to an increased risk for type 2 diabetes in aboriginal women and their offspring, the impact of prevention and optimal treatment of GDM on the type 2 diabetes epidemic in susceptible populations are important areas for further investigation. Diabetes Care 25:487-493, 2002

GDM may be an important driver for the T2DM epidemic in many subpopulations. Because GDM is a readily identifiable, preventable, and treatable condition, investments in prevention, rapid diagnosis, and evidence-based treatment of GDM in at-risk populations may offer substantial benefit in lowering the T2DM burden over many generations. Model-informed data collection can aid in assessing intervention tradeoffs.

Glomerular and other vascular basement membranes were found to contain an antigen that was immunochemically indistinguishable from serum amyloid P-component. There was no immunological cross-reactivity between antisera to serum amyloid P-component and to collagen types I, III, IV, or V. The amyloid P-component antigen was confined to the endothelial aspect, the lamina rara interna, of glomerular basement membrane. It could not be eluted by high-ionic-strength saline, EDTA, dithiothreitol, or either polar or nonpolar detergents, but was released into solution when isolated glomerular basement membrane was digested by highly purified bacterial collagenase. Most of these P-component molecules and their constituent polypeptide chains were of higher molecular weight and lower isoelectric point than serum amyloid P-component. These findings indicate that, as well as being a normal plasma protein and a universal constituent of amyloid deposits, P-component is also a normal matrix glycoprotein of basement membrane in which it is covalently linked to collagen and/or other matrix proteins. This may be relevant both to the pathogenesis of amyloidosis and to other aspects of physiology and pathology of basement membranes.

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