Diabetes care
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To develop a diabetes registry from an outpatient pharmacy database to systematically analyze the prevalence of diabetes, patterns of glycemic medication and glucose monitoring, pharmacy costs, and hospital use related to diabetes care in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in fiscal year (FY) 1994. ⋯ This study demonstrates the feasibility of using a pharmacy-based electronic diabetes database in a payor system that can track both claims and individual classes of medication based on a unique identifier number. While the prevalence of diabetes in the VHA is high relative to other health care systems and the general population, patterns of medication usage, pharmacy costs, and relative admission frequency are comparable to results from the private sector.
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Genetic polymorphisms of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic proteinuria. Ethnic differences in the frequencies of these genotypes have also been reported. To date, most of these studies have been performed in white and Japanese populations. In this study, we examined the associations between albuminuria and RAS genetic polymorphisms in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes. ⋯ The high frequencies of the TT genotype and T allele in Chinese populations may contribute to the high prevalence of albuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes. The possibility of synergism between the AGT TT genotype and the ACE D allele should also be explored.