Diabetes care
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
A highly successful and novel model for treatment of chronic painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
To investigate why, in spite of a vast variety of treatment agents, the alleviation of pain in patients with diabetic neuropathy is difficult. Previous studies have not used a treatment algorithm based on anatomic site and neuropathophysiological source of the neuropathic pain. ⋯ This study presents a new rationale and hypothesis for the successful treatment of chronic painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy. It uniquely bases the treatment algorithm on the types and sources of the pain.
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Comparative Study
Self-monitoring of blood glucose by adults with diabetes in the United States population.
To evaluate self-monitoring of blood glucose, which is considered an important practice for patients with diabetes. However, little is known about the frequency or determinants of this technique. ⋯ A large proportion of patients with diabetes do not test their blood glucose. Financial barriers associated with income and health insurance do not appear to impede the practice of self-monitoring. Because of the importance of blood glucose control in the prevention of diabetes complications and the role of self-monitoring in achieving blood glucose control, it may be prudent for physicians and their patients to make greater use of this technique. Special attention should be directed to the subgroups of patients (blacks, patients not treated with insulin, those with less education, and those with no education in diabetes) in which the frequency of self-monitoring is particularly low.
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To examine the prevalence of painful symptoms in neuropathic patients with or without foot ulceration. It has been suggested that there are two clinical presentations of sensory diabetic neuropathy with little overlap: painful (acute or chronic) and painless with recurrent foot ulceration. ⋯ We conclude that painful symptoms are frequent in diabetic neuropathy, irrespective of the presence or absence of foot ulceration and that these symptoms can occur at any stage of the disease. These results suggest that there is a spectrum of neuropathic syndromes from the painful to the patients with foot ulceration, and that much overlap exists.