18
NEWS
What's new for Type 2
Covid-19 and new diagnoses of T2D, Metformin and
lower osteoarthritis risk, ReCET outpatient endoscopic
procedure may deter people with T2D needing insulin
injections, Roche meter and mySugr app improve
control, Pregnant women trial at-home T2D screening,
and an Asian frog spawns possible treatment for T2D.
Covid-19 can more than
triple the chance of being
diagnosed with Type 2
diabetes within a year of
being infected, according to a new
Canadian study.
Researchers analyzed health data
in British Columbia, Canada from
2020 and 2021 for 629,935 people,
20% of whom were diagnosed with
Covid-19 during that time. The
research found that men who had
even a mild case of Covid-19 were
significantly more likely than noninfected
men to be diagnosed with
T2D, although women did not have
an increased risk unless they were
severely ill. However, both men
and women who had severe cases
were found to be at the highest risk:
people who were hospitalized for
Covid-19 treatment had more than a
doubled risk of being diagnosed with
Type 2 diabetes, and those who were
admitted to intensive care units had
more than a tripled risk.
While the authors cautioned that
their findings could not say that
Covid-19 causes Type 2 diabetes, they
believe that the link makes sense
because Covid-19 is known to impact
the pancreas: "Such a stress may
move a patient from a prediabetic
state into diabetes," wrote Pamela
Davis, who is a former dean of the
Case Western University School of
Medicine in Ohio, where she is now
a professor.
The researchers estimated that
the increased pattern of diagnoses of
diabetes following Covid-19 infection
could increase the rate of the disease
occurring in the general population
by 3% to 5% overall.
Metformin & OA risk
Patients taking metformin for
Type 2 diabetes had a lower risk of
developing osteoarthritis (OA) than
did patients taking a sulfonylurea,
according to a study published in
JAMA Network Open.
The findings fit with those seen
in a 2022 review of preclinical and
observational human studies finding
potentially protective effects of
metformin on osteoarthritis.
In the latest study, the
researchers analyzed claims data
from Optum's Clinformatics Data
Mart Database, which includes
more than 15 million people. The
researchers included all patients
who were at least 40 years old,
had Type 2 diabetes, were taking
metformin, and had been enrolled
in the database for at least one
uninterrupted year. The authors
then compared the incidence of
osteoarthritis and joint replacement
in these 20,937 participants to 20,937
control participants who were taking
a sulfonylurea.
The results revealed that
those who were taking metformin
were 24% less likely to develop
osteoarthritis at least three months
after starting the medication than
were those taking a sulfonylurea.
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ReCET & T2D
An investigational outpatient
endoscopic procedure may help
eliminate the need for insulin in
people with Type 2 diabetes, early
research suggests.
Called re-cellularization via
electroporation therapy (ReCET),
the technology, manufactured
by Endogenex, uses a specialized
catheter to deliver alternating
electric pulses to the duodenum to
induce cellular regeneration. This
process is thought to improve insulin
sensitivity, in part, by altering gut
hormones and nutritional sensing.
In the first-in-human study
of ReCET, 12 of 14 patients were
able to come off insulin for up to
a year following the procedure
when combined with the use
of the glucagon-like peptide-1
agonist semaglutide.
"This might be a gamechanger
in the management of
type 2 diabetes because a single
outpatient endoscopic intervention
was suggested to have a pretty
long therapeutic effect, which
is compliance-free, as opposed
to drug therapy that relies on
patients taking the drugs on a daily
basis," said Bergman, professor
of gastrointestinal endoscopy at
Amsterdam University Medical
Center, Netherlands.