Background: Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) can inform on the timing of hyperglycaemia; however there is currently no standardised approach to utilise these data to improve glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes patients. Aims: To assess the efficacy of structured blood glucose testing in guiding an insulin titration algorithm in poorly controlled, insulin-treated type 2 diabetes patients. The secondary aim was to compare change in HbA1c between the study subjects and matched controls receiving standard treatment. Methods: This six-month prospective intervention recruited 39 poorly controlled (HbA1C ≥ 8.5% or 69.4 mmol/mol), type 2 diabetes subjects using twice-daily biphasic insulin from two public hospitals in Tshwane, South Africa. Patients were asked to perform structured SMBG over 4 weeks and return monthly for consultations where physicians titrated insulin doses using a standardised algorithm guided by the data collected. Post-hoc analysis was performed to assess glycaemic control of study participants compared to those receiving standard treatment. Results: It was found that mean HbA1c decreased over the study period by 1.89% (95% CI: -2.46 to -1.33, p-value<0.001). Mean SMBG and mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) decreased by 1.6 mmol/L (95% CI: -2.5 to -0.6 mmol/L, p-value: 0.002) and 1.5 mmol/L (95% CI: -2.2 to -0.2 mmol/L, p-value: 0.024), respectively. Hypoglycaemic event rate (≤3.9 mmol/L) was 33.08 events per patient-year. Total daily insulin use increased by a mean 40.12 units.day-1 (SE: 7.7, p-value<0.001); weight increased by an average 3.98 kg (95% CI: 2.56 to 5.41, p-value <0.001) over the study period. Study participants were found to have a greater mean (SE) reduction of 0.777% (0.404) in HbA1c compared to patients receiving standard care, which fell short of statistical significance (95% CI: -1.569 to 0.015%, p-value: 0.054) due to lack of power (56.5%) in the post-hoc comparison. Conclusion: A structured SMBG programme that advises monthly algorithmic insulin titration can improve glucose control in type 2 diabetes patients using insulin, with moderate hypoglycaemic events and weight gain. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / National Research Foundation (NRF) / Roche Products (South Africa) / School of Health Systems and Public Health, University of Pretoria / School of Medicine, University of Pretoria / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / MSc / Unrestricted

Master of Public Health - MPH / Sub-Saharan African countries including Rwanda are facing a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). As HIV and AIDS management improves, the AIDS related mortality rate is thus reduced, and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) live longer and have more risk of developing diabetes mellitus. Despite the benefits of screening for T2DM on mortality reduction among PLWHA, this practice is not routinely performed in Rwanda. Therefore, data on the burden of T2DM in PLWHA and associated factors are limited in this country.

Magister Artium (Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science) - MA(SRES) / Obesity is recognised as a risk factor for non-communicable diseases which has reached epidemic proportions globally. South Africa is one of the developing countries with significant statistical representation reported for these conditions. Obesity is associated with other conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia which are all part of what is called metabolic syndrome. As a strategy to reduce the levels of obesity, physical activity has been introduced to compliment clients who are on medication for diabetes.

BACKGROUND In 2010, glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was officially recommended as a screening tool to diagnose type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and pre-diabetes, with cut-off points 6.5% and 5.7% to 6.4% respectively. The implications of using the HbA1c criterion, compared to the general diagnostic criteria: fasting glucose test (FPG) and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), is however still being debated. OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare the pooled prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and pre-diabetes, as measured by the Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test, or the fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Secondly, to determine and compare the diagnostic test characteristics (sensitivity, specificity) of these tests. METHODS Published papers, with a cross sectional study design, were selected for a systematic review and meta-analysis. The search strategy was an electronic review of journal articles listed on MEDLINE, PubMed and Google scholar between 1996 and 2012. Reference lists were checked, journals were hand searched and experts were contacted when necessary. Initially all studies related to the validation of HbA1c as a tool to detect pre-diabetes or T2DM in humans, published in English, were examined. Studies were excluded if they did not meet the above mentioned criteria, and/or were conducted with pregnant women. Further analysis was done if FPG or OGTT was compared to HbA1c. The diagnosis of diabetes had to have been based on ADA or WHO criteria. These criteria are: HbA1c 5.7%-6.4% for pre-diabetes and >=6.5% for T2DM; FPG 5.6mmol-7mmol/l for pre-diabetes and >=7mmol/l for T2DM; OGTT 7.8mmol-11.1mmol/l for pre-diabetes and >=11.1mmol/l for T2DM). The OGTT and FPG tests were used as the reference tests and the prevalence reflected as a positive or negative proportion. The sensitivity and specificity of HbA1c >=6.5% among cases defined by OGTT or FPG should have been reported, or it was possible to calculate these from the data provided. Study results relating to diagnostic accuracy were extracted and synthesized using multivariate random effects meta-analysis methods. This study focused on patients who were suspected of having T2DM, from two sub-groups (a community-based group and a high-risk group) to compare the detection rate of HbA1c with FPG and OGTT. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / MSc / Unrestricted

Yes / The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is escalating globally. Patients suffer from multiple complications including the development of chronic wounds that can lead to amputation. These wounds are characterised by an inflammatory environment including elevated tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Dermal fibroblasts (DF) are critical for effective wound healing, so we sought to establish whether there were any differences in DF cultured from T2DM donors or those without diabetes (ND-DF). ND- and T2DM-DF when cultured similarly in vitro secreted comparable concentrations of TNF-α. Functionally, pre-treatment with TNF-α reduced the proliferation of ND-DF and transiently altered ND-DF morphology; however, T2DM-DF were resistant to these TNF-α induced changes. In contrast, TNF-α inhibited ND- and T2DM-DF migration and matrix metalloprotease expression to the same degree, although T2DM-DF expressed significantly higher levels of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteases (TIMP)-2. Finally, TNF-α significantly increased the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (including CCL2, CXCL1 and SERPINE1) in ND-DF, whilst this effect in T2DM-DF was blunted, presumably due to the tendency to higher baseline pro-inflammatory cytokine expression observed in this cell type. Collectively, these data demonstrate that T2DM-DF exhibit a selective loss of responsiveness to TNF-α, particularly regarding proliferative and secretory functions. This highlights important phenotypic changes in T2DM-DF that may explain the susceptibility to chronic wounds in these patients. / This study was funded by an Iraqi government studentship to AHAA-R.

Current screening tests for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) identify less than 50% of undiagnosed T2DM patients and provide no information about how the disease will develop in prediabetic patients. Here, twenty-nine protein glycation sites were quantified after tryptic digestion of plasma samples at the peptide level using tandem mass spectrometry and isotope-labelled peptides as internal standard. The glycation degrees were determined in three groups, i.e., 48 patients with a duration of T2DM exceeding ten years, 48 non-diabetic individuals matched for gender, BMI, and age, and 20 prediabetic men. In long-term controlled diabetic patients, 27 glycated peptides were detected at significantly higher levels, providing moderate diagnostic accuracies (ACCs) from 61 to 79%, allowing a subgrouping of patients in three distinct clusters. Moreover, a feature set of one glycated peptides and six established clinical parameters provided an ACC of 95%. The same number of clusters was identified in prediabetic males (ACC of 95%) using a set of eight glycation sites (mostly from serum albumin). All patients present in one cluster showed progression of prediabetic state or advanced towards diabetes in the following five years. Overall, the studied glycation sites appear to be promising biomarkers for subgrouping prediabetic patients to estimate their risk for the development of T2DM.