La educación terapéutica de personas con diabetes. Experiencia del Servicio de Endocrinología y Nutrición del Hospital Universitario «Carlos Haya» de Málaga / Therapeutic education in people with diabetes. Experience from the Endocrinology and Nutrition Department of Carlos Haya University Hospital in Málaga, Spain

En la segunda mitad del siglo XX, la medicina ha cambiado más que en toda su historia anterior. Este cambio ha sido la consecuencia no sólo de los avances científicos y técnicos, sino también de los cambios del modelo social. Los pacientes han dejado de ser personas pasivas y han pasado a disfrutar de un creciente protagonismo en la toma de decisiones: es la manera de llevar a la práctica el principio de autonomía, que, junto con los principios de beneficencia y de justicia, constituyen los pilares básicos de la ética médica. Pero la autonomía no es real si el paciente no disfruta de los instrumentos para ejercerla realmente. La educación terapéutica es el mejor instrumento para transferir información desde el médico y el sistema sanitario hacia el paciente. La diabetes mellitus es el prototipo de enfermedad crónica susceptible de beneficiarse de la participación activa del paciente. Los programas de educación de pacientes diabéticos han pasado a formar parte de los espacios establecidos de atención clínica de la diabetes. Por lo general, hasta no hace mucho los servicios clínicos carecían de experiencia en la introducción de la educación como parte de la terapéutica clínica. No es sorprendente, pues, que la manera de organizar la educación de los pacientes haya sido muy diversa: dependía de la capacidad de cada servicio para dar respuesta a los nuevos retos, pero también, y sobre todo, de la sensibilidad y la cultura que se tuviera sobre la relación médico-enfermo. Así, aunque se ha hecho un esfuerzo por estandarizar la educación terapéutica, lo cierto es que ha habido tantos programas como espacios donde se ha puesto en marcha. En el presente artículo se reflexiona sobre la educación de pacientes desde la experiencia de más de 20 años en un servicio de endocrinología y nutrición

In the second half of the 20th century, the field of «Medicine» underwent more changes than throughout its entire previous history. This transformation has been the consequence not only of scientific and technical advances, but of changes in the social model as well. Patients have gone from being passive individuals to having an increasingly prominent role in the decision-making process. This is the manner of putting into practice the principle of autonomy, which, together with the principles of beneficence and justice, is a mainstay of medical ethics. However, this autonomy is not real if the patient is not provided with the tools he or she needs to actually exercise it. Therapeutic education is the best tool for transferring information from the physician and health care system to the patient. Diabetes mellitus represents the prototype of the chronic diseases that could benefit from the active participation of the patient. Education programs for diabetic patients have become a part of the conventional ambit of clinical care in diabetes. The staffs of clinical services generally lack experience in the introduction of education as a part of clinical therapeutics. Thus, it is not surprising that the approach to organizing patient education has varied widely. It has depended on the capacity of each service to respond to the new challenges, but, above all, on the existing sensitivity and culture with respect to the physician-patient relationship, as well. Although there has been an effort to standardize therapeutic education, the truth is that there have been as many programs as settings in which they have been introduced. In the present article, the authors reflect on patient education, following more than twenty years of experience in an endocrinology and nutrition department

[Surreptitious intake of diuretics as the cause of pseudo-Bartter's syndrome: apropos of a case and differential diagnosis]. / Ingesta subrepticia de diuréticos como causa de "Pseudo-Síndrome Bartter", a propósito de un caso y diagnóstico diferencial.

We describe a 39 years old patient with a history of chronic symptomatic hypokalemia. She denied taking any drugs. She satisfied the clinical criteria for Bartter's syndrome and more precisely for Gitelman's syndrome: hypokalemia in the presence of inappropriately high potassium excretion, metabolic alkalosis, hyperreninemic hyperaldosteronism, hypomagnesemia with inappropriately high magnesium excretion, normocalcemia, hypocalciuria and normal blood pressure. A HPLC analysis detected the presence of furosemide in urine and chlorthalidone in urine and plasma samples. After the self administration of diuretics was stopped, the above alterations came back to normality. Prior to the verification of a self administration of diuretics, the patient showed clinical and biochemical parameters that oriented to surreptitious diuretic ingestion (Pseudo-Bartter's syndrome) not to Bartter's syndrome or Gitelman's syndrome, particularly the plasma potassium readily restored to normal by the administration of potassium chloride supplements, the increased plasma uric acid with low uric acid fractional clearance, the widely different urine and plasma electrolyte levels and the presence psychiatric disorders. The literature is reviewed and differential diagnosis, among this three syndromes, is made.