Biomedical Frontiers: Fall 1997, Vol.4, No.2
Diabetes Research
Improving Patient Care

Controlled studies, such as NIH's 10-year Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), have shown that keeping blood sugar in line can help forestall the complications of diabetes. But the techniques used to control blood sugar in clinical trials can be impractical when applied to everyday life: Subjects in the DCCT trial, for instance, measured their blood sugar at least four times a day and once a week at 3 a.m., visited the doctor once a month, and received a follow-up call from a nurse or dietitian every week. Moreover, they carried out these measures consistently over the course of nine years.

At CPMC, Dr. John F. Nicholson, director of the Children's Diabetes Service, and colleagues are working to translate the findings of DCCT into clinical practice. "We're trying to find the least obtrusive way to manage diabetes that still works to get good results."

At the same time, Drs. Nicholson and Elaine Reed, associate professor of clinical pathology, are studying HLA genes in people from the Dominican Republic to determine if the autoimmune origins of the disease are the same in the Dominican Republic and northern Europe. The study will shed new light on the origins of the disease in CPMC's patient population.