Inpatient Glucose Values: Determining the Nondiabetic Range and Use in Identifying Patients at High Risk for Diabetes

Annual Foot Exams are Associated with Reduced Incident Amputation among Older Veterans with Diabetes

We conducted a secondary data analysis to evaluate the association between annual foot exams and incident lower extremity amputations (LEA) among older veterans with diabetes during FY2007-FY2014. Older Veterans with at least one primary care provider visit each year (N = 664,162) and at least one foot exam each year (N = 72,892) and the overlap were identified from the 5 years prior to the study period of interest (FY2002-FY2006 (N = 71,122)). After excluding incident LEA related to cancer and trauma, 71,018 veterans (mean age +/- SD, % male) were included in the final cohort, which was followed from FY2007-FY2014 to evaluate the influence of subsequent annual foot exams and incident LEA. Consistent annual foot exams were protective for incident LEA in older veterans with diabetes, adjusted OR was 0.85 (97% CI: 0.74-0.96). Results indicate that adherence to annual foot exam guidelines can reduce incident LEA in older veterans with diabetes.

16. Diabetes Care in the Hospital: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2022

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) "Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes" includes the ADA's current clinical practice recommendations and is intended to provide the components of diabetes care, general treatment goals and guidelines, and tools to evaluate quality of care. Members of the ADA Professional Practice Committee, a multidisciplinary expert committee (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-SPPC), are responsible for updating the Standards of Care annually, or more frequently as warranted. For a detailed description of ADA standards, statements, and reports, as well as the evidence-grading system for ADA's clinical practice recommendations, please refer to the Standards of Care Introduction (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-SINT). Readers who wish to comment on the Standards of Care are invited to do so at professional.diabetes.org/SOC.

15. Diabetes Care in the Hospital: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2021

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) "Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes" includes the ADA's current clinical practice recommendations and is intended to provide the components of diabetes care, general treatment goals and guidelines, and tools to evaluate quality of care. Members of the ADA Professional Practice Committee, a multidisciplinary expert committee (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc21-SPPC), are responsible for updating the Standards of Care annually, or more frequently as warranted. For a detailed description of ADA standards, statements, and reports, as well as the evidence-grading system for ADA's clinical practice recommendations, please refer to the Standards of Care Introduction (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc21-SINT). Readers who wish to comment on the Standards of Care are invited to do so at professional.diabetes.org/SOC.

15. Diabetes Care in the Hospital: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2020

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) "Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes" includes the ADA's current clinical practice recommendations and is intended to provide the components of diabetes care, general treatment goals and guidelines, and tools to evaluate quality of care. Members of the ADA Professional Practice Committee, a multidisciplinary expert committee (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-SPPC), are responsible for updating the Standards of Care annually, or more frequently as warranted. For a detailed description of ADA standards, statements, and reports, as well as the evidence-grading system for ADA's clinical practice recommendations, please refer to the Standards of Care Introduction (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-SINT). Readers who wish to comment on the Standards of Care are invited to do so at professional.diabetes.org/SOC.

In-hospital screening for diabetes mellitus with HbA1c in an internal medicine department was not useful; a prospective pilot study

Background. Screening inpatients for diabetes mellitus may be a good opportunity to detect undiagnosed cases and several studies have demonstrated the feasibility and usefulness of this practice. HbA1c has been suggested as the method of choice due to the effects of acute illness on glucose. The aim of this study was to evaluate a screening protocol based on HbA1c to identify inpatients with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus in an internal medicine department.

Methods. We conducted a prospective study of all admissions in the internal medicine department of a 412-bed community hospital in Greece during a 6-month period. Candidates for screening based on the American Diabetes Association’s recommendations were screened with HbA1c. Patients with very poor health status and patients with conditions that may interfere with HbA1c measurement or interpretation were excluded.

Results. Of 463 patients (median age 74) only a small proportion (14.9%) were candidates for screening with HbA1c. Known diabetes mellitus, a low admission glucose, severe anemia or blood loss and poor health status were the most common reasons of exclusion. Among the 55 screened patients, 7 had diabetes (based on HbA1c ≥ 6.5%). However, in only 1 of them HbA1c was above target considering the patients’ health status. Categorical agreement (no diabetes, prediabetes, diabetes) between morning glucose and HbA1c was low. However, the concordance between a morning glucose < 125 mg/dl and HbA1c < 6.5% was > 90%.

Conclusions. In settings similar to ours (very elderly patients, high rate of conditions that confound the use of HbA1c and high rate of patients with poor health status), untargeted screening of inpatients with HbA1c is unlikely to be cost-effective. A morning glucose during hospitalization may be a better first step for screening.

15. Diabetes Care in the Hospital: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2019

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) "Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes" includes ADA's current clinical practice recommendations and is intended to provide the components of diabetes care, general treatment goals and guidelines, and tools to evaluate quality of care. Members of the ADA Professional Practice Committee, a multidisciplinary expert committee, are responsible for updating the Standards of Care annually, or more frequently as warranted. For a detailed description of ADA standards, statements, and reports, as well as the evidence-grading system for ADA's clinical practice recommendations, please refer to the Standards of Care Introduction Readers who wish to comment on the Standards of Care are invited to do so at professional.diabetes.org/SOC.