Diabetics who use meters to monitor their glucose have better control over disease

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will present several new studies at ENDO 2013, The Endocrine Society's Annual Meeting & Expo (ENDO) from June 15-18 in San Francisco.

Mount Sinai researchers will demonstrate new data on diabetes self-management, as well as the role of prostastic acid phosphatase (PAP) in Prostate Cancer (PCa) bone metastases; identify new molecules that can stimulate the thyroid gland; reveal the prevalence of primary aldosteronism (PA) in an urban population; and show how thyroid autoimmunity may be triggered by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress.

Highlights of Mount Sinai research at ENDO 2013:

Availability of Reliable Home Blood Glucose Data at Diabetes Appointments and Correlation with Hemoglobin A1C (Under embargo until 1:45 pm PDT on Sunday, June 16, 2013)

Medicaid and Medicare patients with uncontrolled diabetes, who brought their glucose meters to appointments, and monitored levels at home, lowered their Hemoglobin A1c by 1.2 percent, whereas all other patients saw no change in their A1c. The research highlighting diabetes self-management was conducted by Ronald Tamler, MD, PhD, CDE, Clinical Director of the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at The Mount Sinai Medical Center and his team, and presented in an ENDO 2013 poster session. "These results show that there is still much work to be done in educating patients about the benefits of glucose monitoring," said Dr. Tamler. "We also need to focus our resources on the population most likely to benefit from this kind of monitoring. After all, the effect seen in Medicare and Medicaid patients rivals that of adding another medication."

The team reviewed data on 500 adult patients at the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center and determined that 30 percent of the patients (almost all insulin-treated) brought glucose meters to their visits. "Hand-written glucose logs can be misleading," said Gillian Boyd-Woschinko, MD, Chief Endocrine Fellow at Mount Sinai and lead author of the study. "Past research has shown then when comparing hand written logs to meter data, it can be inaccurate due to under-reporting and over-reporting. Both occur as a result of human error, the desire to please the physician, and lack of understanding of the utility of accurate data. We encourage all patients to bring their blood glucose meters to their appointments, so we can download them."

Prostatic Acid Phosphatase in Prostate Cancer Bone Metastases: Rank Ligand as a Mediator (Under embargo until 10:45 am PDT on Sunday, June 16, 2013)

Levels of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), the oldest tumor marker, are elevated in men with prostate cancer (PCa) bone metastases, according to research presented by Alice C. Levine, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and her team in a highlighted poster session. According to Dr. Levine, PCa has a tendency to spread to the bone where it becomes incurable and blood PAP levels are higher in men with PCa bone metastases.