Diabetes Complications, Comorbidities and Related Disorders

This book provides the reader with comprehensive information on the interactions between diabetes and a wide range of comorbid conditions and on disease management in such patients. It has the aim of empowering health care providers in their daily battle against the disease and its consequences. Diabetes has been identified by WHO and the United Nations as a medical emergency because of the increase in its global prevalence, which may reach one billion in three to four decades if the trend remains unchanged. Despite improved care that is helping to prolong life, diabetes impacts substantially on the quality of life of those affected and kills or disables several million people each year. The disease is systemic because all organs, tissues, and cells suffer in the presence of hyperglycemia and are damaged by the diabetic milieu. Unfortunately, most patients with diabetes will consequently experience chronic diabetic complications. This book will be of value for all physicians and nurses who care for patients with diabetes and face the challenge of treating hyperglycemia and related acute and chronic complications.

Enzo Bonora M.D., Ph.D., Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, and Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases.

Full Professor of Endocrinology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.

Director, School of Specialization in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.

Coordinator, Doctorate in Clinical and Experimental Medical Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.

Coordinator, Integrated Course of Systematic Pathology II, School of Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.

Head, Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.

Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy.

Scientific activities mainly in the fields of (a) epidemiology of diabetes and related conditions; (b) risk factors of type 2 diabetes and its chronic complications; (c) pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes (impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance) and related conditions (e.g., metabolic syndrome); (d) obesity and fat distribution in humans and their metabolic and cardiovascular impact; and (e) therapy of diabetes and related conditions.

Author or coauthor of about 300 full-length papers in peer-reviewed journals (Impact Factor: about 2,500; citations: about 15,000; H-index: about 60) and a further 150 papers, reviews, and chapters of books.

More than 500 invited lectures and seminars in international and national congresses and meetings as well as in public and private institutions.

“Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award” from the Italian Diabetes Society in 1992.

“Michaela Modan Memorial Award” from the American Diabetes Association in 1997.

President, Italian Diabetes Society 2014–2016. President, Diabetes Research Foundation 2016–2018.

Ralph A. DeFronzo M.D., is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio, Texas. Dr. DeFronzo is a graduate of Yale University (BS) and Harvard Medical School (MD) and did his training in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed fellowships in Endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health and Baltimore City Hospitals and in Nephrology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, he joined the faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine (1975–1988) as an Assistant/Associate Professor. From 1988 to present Dr. DeFronzo has been Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He also serves as the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute.

His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the insulin resistance syndrome. Using the euglycemic insulin clamp technique in combination with radioisotope turnover methodology, limb catheterization, indirect calorimetry, and muscle biopsy, he has helped to define the biochemical and molecular disturbances responsible for insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

For his work in this area, Dr. DeFronzo received the prestigious Lilly Award (1987) by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the Banting Lectureship (1988) by the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Novartis Award (2003) for outstanding clinical investigation worldwide, and many other national and international awards. He is also the recipient of the ADA’s Albert Renold Award (2002) for lifetime commitment to the training of young diabetes investigators. Dr. DeFronzo received the Banting Award from the ADA (2008) and the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD (2008). These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively. In 2008, Dr. DeFronzo also received the Italian Diabetes Mentor Prize and the Philip Bondy Lecture at Yale. In 2009, he received the Presidential Award for Distinguished Scientific Achievement from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. DeFronzo received the Outstanding Clinical Investigator Worldwide Award by CODHy (2012), the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the American College of Nutrition (2014), the Samuel Eichold II Memorial Award for Contributions in Diabetes from the American College of Physicians (2015), the George Cahill Memorial Lecture from the University of Montreal (2015), and the Priscilla White Memorial Lecture from the Joslin Clinic & Brigham and Women’s Hospital (2015). Most recently (2017), Dr. DeFronzo received the Hamm International Prize for his many seminal observations on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes and the Distinction in Endocrinology Award from the American College of Endocrinology. With more than 800 articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals, Dr. DeFronzo is a distinguished clinician, teacher, and investigator who has been an invited speaker at major national and international conferences on diabetes mellitus.