Type 1 Diabetes Case Study

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Type 1 diabetes is a chronic illness characterized by the body’s inability to produce insulin due to the autoimmune destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas. Onset most often occurs in childhood, but the disease can also develop in adults in their late 30s and early 40s.

See Clinical Findings in Diabetes Mellitus, a Critical Images slideshow, to help identify various cutaneous, ophthalmologic, vascular, and neurologic manifestations of DM.

Essential Update: New Abridged Recommendations for Primary Care Providers
The American Diabetes Association has released condensed recommendations for Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes: Abridged for Primary Care Providers, highlighting recommendations most relevant to primary care. The abridged
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The onset of symptomatic disease may be sudden. It is not unusual for patients with type 1 diabetes to present with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).

See Clinical Presentation for more detail.

Diagnosis
Diagnostic criteria by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) include the following[2] :

A fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level ≥126 mg/dL (7.0 mmol/L), or
A 2-hour plasma glucose level ≥200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L) during a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), or
A random plasma glucose ≥200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L) in a patient with classic symptoms of hyperglycemia or hyperglycemic crisis
Lab studies

A fingerstick glucose test is appropriate for virtually all patients with diabetes. All fingerstick capillary glucose levels must be confirmed in serum or plasma to make the diagnosis. All other laboratory studies should be selected or omitted on the basis of the individual clinical situation.

An international expert committee appointed by the ADA, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and the International Diabetes Association recommended the HbA1c assay for diagnosing type 1 diabetes only when the condition is suspected but the classic symptoms are