Automatic laboratory-based strategy to improve the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in primary care.

Introduction: To study the pre-design and success of a strategy based on the addition of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in the blood samples of certain primary care patients to detect new cases of type 2 diabetes.

Materials And Methods: In a first step, we retrospectively calculated the number of HbA1c that would have been measured in one year if HbA1c would have been processed, according to the guidelines of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Based on those results we decided to prospectively measure HbA1c in every primary care patient above 45 years, with no HbA1c in the previous 3 years, and glucose concentration between 5.

Request of thyroid function tests from Primary Care in Spain.

Background And Objectives: Laboratory tests are crucial for diagnosis and monitoring of thyroid disorders. It is therefore necessary to study the pattern and variability in requests of thyroid function tests. The study objectives were to compare the inter-regional variability in the request of laboratory thyroid tests by general practitioners (GPs) in Spain, and to investigate the potential economic savings if the goals set for some suitability indicators were reached.

Validation of the Spanish version of the Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID-SP) Scale.

This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID-SP) Scale. Data were collected from patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The findings suggested that the PAID-SP is a reliable and valid measure of diabetes-specific emotional problems.

Presurgical assessment of the tumor burden of familial medullary thyroid carcinoma by calcitonin testing.

Background: Early diagnosis of familial medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is currently done by genetic analysis. These techniques have replaced calcitonin stimulation testing, which was previously used for this purpose. Some studies suggest a relationship between MTC spread and calcitonin levels.