This prospective study assessed the minimum volume of blood, the precision and the accuracy of capillary glycaemia obtained with the use of a digital glucometer. A total of 108 diabetic individuals were enrolled, teenagers and adults of both genders, from the Diabetes Clinic of the Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, Canada, in 6 months. Glycaemia monitoring was performed using an AccuCheck Compact (Roche) glucometer. For the volume, 6 samples of blood were tested, on tree glucometers, using a crossover design […]

AIM: To evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in type 2 diabetic (DM2) outpatients from different regions of Brazil. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We studied 2,519 randomly selected patients, from 11 hospitals, 2 endocrine and one general public care clinics from 10 cities. Overweight was defined as body-mass index (BMI) > 25 and obesity as BMI > 30 kg/m2. Glycemic control (GC) was evaluated by GC index (GCI= patient’s HbA1 or HbA1c/upper limit of normal for the method x 100). […]

This article reports the Brazilian Diabetes Society consensus statement on intensive insulin therapy and insulin pump therapy, arrived at during an update symposium held in 2003 for this specific purpose. The concepts underlying these modalities of diabetes treatment are outlined, their fundaments are given, and practical issues about their indications, feasibility, limits, techniques and cost-benefit relationships are analyzed. The techniques comprise the suggested self-monitoring schedules and the insulin doses, types, forms of administration and correction factors used in each modality […]

Conventional assessment of glycemic control in diabetes mellitus (DM) includes blood glucose attention to glycemia and glycated hemoglobin levels. Recently, we introduced the continuous glucose-monitoring test (CGM) (Medtronic Minimed – CGMS® System GoldTM). Here we describe our experience with this methodology over the year 2004. A total of 141 CGM tests were performed over this period of time. Overall, 88% (n= 124) patients were diabetics (DM), 99 of them were insulin users. We found a strong correlation between glucose values […]

DNA extraction of peripheral leukocytes is the most broadly used technique to obtain DNA. However, cell collection from an oral swab, frequently used in forensics, is useful to obtain DNA samples, mainly in newborns, children and patients who live far from the collection sites, where blood sample collection and sending is not feasible. Our objective was to standardize DNA extraction from an oral swab, using the NaCl method, comparing it with a commercial kit. To test DNA quality, we amplified […]

The aim of the present study was to evaluate a new proposal for increasing compliance to the clinical management of patients with Graves’ disease (GD) in a large and public University Hospital. The patients were carefully selected (no previous GD treatment, goiter volume less than 6mL must be living in the metro area of São Paulo), received medication at no cost, were contacted frequently by the social worker and alerted for the date of consultation and only referred to a […]

The World Wide Web, also known as the Internet, is an important agent of spreading human knowledge. Medical education through the web without formal presence at the classroom is a modern use of this valuable resource, characterizing the online continuous medical education (eCME). The search of videoconferences, monographs, guidelines and update courses in endocrinology and metabolism at the Internet through search mechanisms is an extremely slow and hard task due to the huge amount of sites resulting from this process. […]

After randomized clinical trials produced impact and questions at the medical community on menopause hormonal therapy (MHT), the Department of Female Endocrinology and Andrology of the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology convened a group of specialists to produce an informative, critical and position paper, offering guidelines for those who practice or are called to express their opinion on menopause therapy. MHT is indicated for relief of vasomotor symptoms, maintenance of vaginal trophism, bone mass and collagen preservation, sexual and general well-being. […]

Obesity is the most common expression of malnutrition and its prevalence has been increasing fast in Brazil. The Internet – though still underused – can be an useful tool in treating obesity through behavioral techniques. The purpose of the present paper was to assess the use of the Internet for obesity treatment in a sample of adults of Lagoa dos Três Cantos, RS, where 58.6% of the population reported a BMI over 25kg/m2. All overweight individuals (n= 532) were submitted […]

An evaluation was made of the timing delays in the various phases of the Screening Program for Congenital Hypothyroidism (HC) and Phenylketonuria (PKU), the coverage and incidence in the State of Sergipe from 1998 to 2003. The results were compared to the data from 1995. The age of the children in the sampling was 12 ± 11 days (mean ± standard deviation) lower than the 30 ± 19 days in the second semester of 1995. In the second half of […]

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: This paper reports the experience with the Endocrine System Educational Unit (ESEU), built by a transdisciplinar team, carried out in the 2nd grade of Famema medical course. The aim was to integrate teaching and learning in order to graduate medical doctors who would approach the human being from the social, psychological and biological aspects. METHOD: The ESEU was used, and the evaluations (closed and open fields) were carried out by students and tutors based on two criteria: […]

In addition to stimulating body growth, growth or somatotrophic hormone plays an important role in metabolism, body composition, lipid profile, cardiovascular status and longevity. Its control is multiregulated by hormones, metabolites and hypothalamic peptides. Obtained data of the isolated growth hormone deficiency (IGHD) after the description of the IVS1+1G®A GHRH receptor gene mutation in individuals of Itabaianinha County are reviewed. New perspectives about the growth hormone resistance model, the importance of GHRH in the control of GH secretion, the frequency […]