Efficacy and safety of degludec U100 versus glargine U300 for the early postoperative management of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery: A non-inferiority randomized trial.

AIMS: To compare the efficacy and safety of degludec U100 versus glargine U300 for the early postoperative management of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. METHODS: A total of 239 patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive a basal-bolus regimen in the early postoperative period using degludec U100 (n = 122) or glargine U300 (n = 117) as basal and glulisine before meals. The primary outcome was mean differences between groups in their daily BG concentrations. The major safety outcome was the occurrence of hypoglycemia. RESULTS: There were no differences in mean daily BG concentrations (157 vs. 162 mg/dl), mean percentage of readings within target BG of 70-180 mg/dl (74% vs. 73%), daily basal insulin dose (19 vs. 21 units/day), length of stay (median [IQR]: 9 vs. 9 days), or hospital complications (21.3% vs. 21.4%) between treatment groups. There were no differences in the proportion of patients with BG <70 mg/dl (15.6% vs. 23.1%) or <54 mg/dl (1.6% vs. 4.3%) between degludec-100 and glargine-300 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with degludec U100 is as effective and safe as glargine U300 for the early postoperative hospital management of patients with T2D undergoing CABG.

Idiopathic Hypoparathyroidism: Still a Diagnostic Conundrum - A Tertiary Centre Experience.

Idiopathic hypoparathyroidism leads to hypocalcemia and hyperphosphatasemia and usually has a genetic aetiology. The variable but often subtle signs and symptoms usually lead to a misdiagnosis of hypoparathyroidism. Case records of 32 patients of idiopathic hypoparathyroidism admitted over a period of five years were analysed. There was a lag period of 5.94 years from the onset of symptoms to the diagnosis. Carpopedal spasm was the most common indication for admission to the hospital. Trivial symptoms such as fatigue (84%) and paresthesia (62.5%) were the most common reported symptoms. A sum of 46.5% of the patients were on antiepileptic drugs before the correct diagnosis of hypoparathyroidism was made. This observation emphasized that Calcium profile should be obtained in patients with history of paresthesia and seizure to avoid the long delay in diagnosis of hypoparathyroidism.

Chikungunya Fever Presenting as Life Threatening Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.

It is well known for Chikungunya fever to present as myriad of skin rash along with usual joint pain and fever, but probably this is the first case report of Chikungunya fever presenting as severe life threatening thrombotic microangiopathy, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura leading to multiple areas of skin necrosis, peripheral digital gangrene, haemolytic anemia, renal failure and severe thrombocytopenia with bleeding. This complication was most likely due to inhibitor autoantibody formation against ADAMTS13 triggered by chikungunya virus leading to thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Patient was treated with plasmapheresis and other supportive careto which she responded. Her symptoms subsided, and she is symptom free and leading normal life in her follow up visits.

Dapagliflozin for inpatient hyperglycemia in cardiac surgery patients with type 2 diabetes: randomised controlled trial (Dapa-Hospital trial).

AIMS: To examine the efficacy and safety of dapagliflozin in the treatment of hyperglycemia in cardiac surgery patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). METHODS: Cardiac surgery patients with T2D (n = 250) were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive dapagliflozin plus basal-bolus insulin (DAPA group) or basal-bolus insulin alone (INSULIN group) in the early postoperative period. The primary outcome was mean difference in daily blood glucose (BG) concentrations between groups. The major safety outcomes were the occurrence of severe ketonemia/diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and hypoglycemia. All analyses were performed according to the intention-to-treat principle. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 61 years (range, 55-61), and 219 (87.6%) were men. Overall, the randomization blood glucose was 165 mg/dL (SD, 37) and glycated hemoglobin was 7.7% (SD, 1.4). There were no differences in mean daily BG concentrations (149 vs. 150 mg/dL), mean percentage of readings within target BG of 70-180 mg/dL (82.7% vs. 82.5%), total daily insulin dose (mean, 39 vs. 40 units/day), number of daily insulin injections (median, 3.9 vs. 4), length of hospital stay (median, 10 vs. 10 days), or hospital complications (21.6% vs. 24.8%) between the DAPA and INSULIN groups. The mean plasma ketone levels were significantly higher in the DAPA group than in the INSULIN group at day 3 (0.71 vs. 0.30 mmol/L) and day 5 (0.42 vs. 0.19 mmol/L) of randomization. Six patients in the DAPA group developed severe ketonemia, but no patient developed DKA. There were no differences in the proportion of patients with BG < 70 mg/dL (9.6% vs. 7.2%) between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Dapagliflozin complementary to basal-bolus insulin does not improve glycemia further over and above the basal-bolus insulin alone in hospitalized cardiac surgery patients. Dapagliflozin significantly increases plasma ketones levels. Safety of dapagliflozin in hospitalized patients needs further investigation. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05457933.

Vitamin D deficiency in patients with diabetes and COVID- 19 infection.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Data show that vitamin D deficiency may play a role in patients with diabetes mellitus and COVID-19 infection. In this article, we review evidence of vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 infection in context of diabetes mellitus. METHODS: A literature search was carried out by using the key term 'COVID 19' combined with 'Diabetes', 'Vitamin D', 'Extra skeletal effects', 'immunity', 'infection', 'India' from Pub Med (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD and Google Scholar from December 2019 to May 2020. A manual search of the references was also carried out. RESULTS: Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to increased morbidity and mortality in COVID -19 infections but convincing data on diabetic subgroup of patients in particular is still awaited. CONCLUSION: Robust studies are required to ascertain if Vitamin D supplementation could be beneficial in patients with diabetes and COVID-19.