Comparing medication persistence with oral and subcutaneous semaglutide in a real-world setting.

Aims: To compare medication persistence and efficacy of oral and subcutaneous semaglutide, in a real-world setting.

Materials And Methods: This is a single-center, retrospective observational cohort study. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) starting treatment with either formulation of semaglutide between January 1 2019 and July 31 2023 and with at least one follow-up visit were included.

Low 25 (OH) vitamin D levels are associated with increased prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and significant liver fibrosis.

Aims: Evidence on the role of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in the occurrence and progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is conflicting and population-based data are scarce. Here, we assess the association between 25(OH)D levels, NAFLD and liver fibrosis in the general population.

Materials And Methods: This is an analysis of data from the 2017-2018 cycle of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Seasonal variation in estimated cardiovascular risk in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Background And Aims: Seasonal variations in several risk factors for cardiovascular events (CVD) were described. Here, we evaluate the impact of seasonal variations in blood pressure (BP), lipid profile and glycemic control on estimated CVD risk in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Methods And Results: Retrospective monocentric study of patients with T2D who were visited at least once in the winter period and once in the summer period, less than 8 months apart, for which data related to systolic (S) BP, diastolic (D) BP, body mass index, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and smoking habit were available on both occasions.

Metabolic and Psychological Features are Associated with Weight Loss 12 Months After Sleeve Gastrectomy.

Context: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is a recognized effective procedure of bariatric surgery, but a poor response in weight loss may still represent a clinical problem. To date there are no validated predictors useful to better perform patient selection.

Objective: To establish the association of baseline anthropometric, metabolic, and psychologic features with the percent total weight loss (%TWL) and percent excess weight loss (%EWL) 12 months after surgery.

Baseline TSH levels and short-term weight loss after different procedures of bariatric surgery.

Background: Bariatric surgery is a valuable therapeutic option in the treatment of obesity but the outcomes show a large subject-to-subject variability yet to be explained. Thyroid function may represent an involved factor and we have only few controversial data about its influence.

Subjects/methods: We retrospectively assessed using a longitudinal approach the relation between baseline TSH levels and short-term (6 and 12 months) weight loss in 387 euthyroid patients who underwent laparoscopic gastric banding (LAGB; n = 187) or sleeve gastrectomy (SG; n = 200).

Hypercortisolism and altered glucose homeostasis in obese patients in the pre-bariatric surgery assessment.

Aims: Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hyperactivity was suggested to be associated with the metabolic syndrome (MS), obesity and diabetes. The aim of this study was to test whether hypercortisolism was associated with altered glucose homeostasis and insulin resistance, hypertension and dyslipidemia in a homogeneous population of obese patients.

Materials/methods: In retrospective analysis of a set of data about obese patients attending the outpatient service of a single obesity centre between January 2013 and January 2020, 884 patients with BMI >30 kg/m were segregated in two subgroups: patients with urinary free cortisol (UFC) higher than normal (UFC+; n = 129) or within the normal range (UFC-; n = 755).

Visit-to-visit blood pressure variability in patients with type 2 diabetes with and without previous history of cardiovascular disease.

Objective: Visit-to-visit variability in SBP is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) but little is known on whether in T2DM this differs according to presence or absence of previous CVD.

Methods: We retrospectively assessed the coefficient of variation (standard deviation/mean) of mean SBP (SBP-CV) in 970 patients (44% with established CVD) attending at least four times our secondary care diabetes clinic in 2015-2016 to estimate their risk of CVD-related events using the 10-year UKPDS Risk Engine.

Results: Patients with established CVD had a higher SBP-CV (10.

Resting Whole Body Energy Metabolism in Class 3 Obesity; from Preserved Insulin Sensitivity to Overt Type 2 Diabetes.

Context: Insulin resistance and diabetes may influence separately or in combination whole body energy metabolism.

Objective: To assess the impact of insulin resistance and/or overt type 2 diabetes on resting energy expenditure (REE) in class 3 obese individuals.

Design And Setting: Retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of a set of data about individuals attending the outpatients service of a single center of bariatric surgery between January 2015 and December 2017.

Resting Energy Expenditure in Obese Women with Primary Hypothyroidism and Appropriate Levothyroxine Replacement Therapy.

Context: Growing evidence suggests that appropriate levothyroxine (LT4) replacement therapy may not correct the full set of metabolic defects afflicting individuals with hypothyroidism.

Objective: To assess whether obese subjects with primary hypothyroidism are characterized by alterations of the resting energy expenditure (REE).

Design: Retrospective analysis of a set of data about obese women attending the outpatients service of a single obesity center from January 2013 to July 2019.

Screening for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in type 2 diabetes using non-invasive scores and association with diabetic complications.

Objective: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is prevalent in patients with type 2 diabetes. Here, we estimate the proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes that should be referred to hepatologists according to the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL)-European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD)-European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) Guidelines and evaluate the association between non-invasive biomarkers of steatosis and fibrosis and diabetic complications.

Research Design And Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of type 2 diabetes patients who attended on a regular basis our diabetes clinic between 2013 and 2018 (n=2770).

Fasting Whole-Body Energy Homeostasis and Hepatic Energy Metabolism in Nondiabetic Humans with Fatty Liver.

Background: Fatty liver is believed to be sustained by a higher than normal adipose-derived NEFA flux to the liver. Also, hepatic energy metabolism may be a rate-limiting step of intrahepatic fat (IHF) accumulation.

Aims: To assess whole-body energy metabolism and hepatic high-energy phosphates (HEPs) in individuals with fatty liver.

Lipid accumulation in overweight type 2 diabetic subjects: relationships with insulin sensitivity and adipokines.

Adipokines are known to play a fundamental role in the etiology of obesity, that is, in the impaired balance between increased feeding and decreased energy expenditure. While the adipokine-induced changes of insulin resistance in obese diabetic and nondiabetic subjects are well known, the possible role of fat source in modulating insulin sensitivity (IS) remains controversial. The aim of our study was to explore in overweight type 2 diabetic patients (T2DM) with metabolic syndrome IS in different energy storage conditions (basal and dynamic) for relating it to leptin and adiponectin.

Insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia and cancer mortality: the Cremona study at the 15th year of follow-up.

Type 2 diabetes is associated with risk of cancer. Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance may be the link with cancer, but whether this is independent of the diabetes status, obesity/visceral obesity and metabolic syndrome is uncertain and the present study wanted to address this issue. Fifteen-year all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality data were obtained through the Regional Health Registry in 2,011 out of 2,074 Caucasian middle-aged individuals of the Cremona Study, a population study on the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Italy in which anthropometric and metabolic characteristics were collected.

Resting cardiac energy metabolism is inversely associated with heart rate in healthy young adult men.

Background: 31-Phosphorus-magnetic resonance spectroscopy may provide pathophysiological insights into the high-energy phosphate metabolism of the myocardium as measured by phosphocreatine to adenosine triphosphate (PCr/ATP) ratio. Aim of the present study was to determine in vivo the relation between cardiac PCr/ATP ratio and heart rate in normal male subjects.

Methods: One hundred twelve apparently healthy, young male individuals (age 34 ± 10 years) were prospectively evaluated.

Effect of partial inhibition of fatty acid oxidation by trimetazidine on whole body energy metabolism in patients with chronic heart failure.

Objective: Trimetazidine may have beneficial effects on left ventricular (LV) function in patients with systolic heart failure. The authors assessed whether long-term addition of trimetazidine to conventional treatment could improve, along with LV function, resting whole body energy metabolism in patients with chronic systolic heart failure.

Design: Single blind randomised study.

Fatty liver index and mortality: the Cremona study in the 15th year of follow-up.

Unlabelled: A fatty liver, which is a common feature in insulin-resistant states, can lead to chronic liver disease. It has been hypothesized that a fatty liver can also increase the rates of non-hepatic-related morbidity and mortality. Therefore, we wanted to determine whether the fatty liver index (FLI), a surrogate marker and a validated algorithm derived from the serum triglyceride level, body mass index, waist circumference, and γ-glutamyltransferase level, was associated with the prognosis in a population study.

Increased low-grade inflammation is associated with lack of functional response to carvedilol in patients with systolic heart failure.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate, according to functional response, the neuroendocrine and inflammatory status in patients with chronic heart failure before and after therapy with carvedilol.

Methods And Results: Serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) soluble receptors (sTNF-R1 and sTNF-R2), interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-18, chromogranin A (CgA) and brain natriuretic peptide (pro-BNP) were measured in 37 New York Heart Association class II to IV heart failure patients, at baseline and after 6 months of therapy with carvedilol. Patients were divided in two groups according to whether, following carvedilol, left-ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) had increased by at least 5% (17 patients) or not (20 patients).

Why does NAFLD predict type 2 diabetes?

Based on the "lipotoxic" hypothesis, the free fatty acid flux from the excessive amount of adipose tissue toward the peripheral tissues would induce the development of insulin resistance especially when the triglyceride storage or the concentration of intermediate fat metabolites (diacylglycerides, ceramides) within the cytoplasm of these cells become excessive. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes a wide spectrum of liver damage, ranging from simple steatosis to steatohepatitis and advanced fibrosis. NAFLD is associated with general and intra-abdominal obesity and with a reduced ability of insulin to stimulate metabolic pathways in the liver itself and in other tissues.

Lack of association of apoE ε4 allele with insulin resistance.

ApoE is a polymorphic protein involved in the metabolism of plasma lipoproteins; the ε4 allele was shown to be associated with coronary and aortic atherosclerosis in age-dependent fashion mediated by unknown mechanisms. This study was undertaken to assess whether the apoE isoforms in humans were associated with normal glucose tolerance and with metabolic and inflammatory risk factors of CVD. ApoE genotype was assessed in 365 individuals.

Prevalence, metabolic features, and prognosis of metabolically healthy obese Italian individuals: the Cremona Study.

Objective: Some obese individuals have normal insulin sensitivity. It is controversial whether this phenotype is associated with increased all-cause mortality risk.

Research Design And Methods: Fifteen-year all-cause mortality data were obtained through the Regional Health Registry for 2,011 of 2,074 Caucasian middle-aged individuals of the Cremona Study, a population study on the prevalence of diabetes in Italy.

Left ventricular function and energy homeostasis in patients with type 1 diabetes with and without microvascular complications.

Background: This study was performed to assess left ventricular (LV) energy metabolism and function in patients with type 1 diabetes with or without overt microvascular complications.

Methods: We performed cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and (31)P spectroscopy (MRS) in 24 patients with overt microvascular complications and in 15 carefully selected patients without complications in spite of a long duration of the disease (>20 years) and matched for anthropometric features. 31 healthy subjects served as a control group.

Free leptin index and thyroid function in male highly trained athletes.

Objective: Exercise training may cause changes in thyroid function. This thyroid response may be due to exercise-induced modulation of energy metabolism but also of the adipocytes endocrine function. In particular, the role of leptin and of circulating soluble leptin receptor (sOB-R) was unexplored.

A high carbohydrate meal yields a lower ischemic threshold than a high fat meal in patients with stable coronary disease.

Objective: To assess the ischemic threshold and stress-induced left ventricular dysfunction after high fat (HFM) and high carbohydrate (HCM) meals in patients with stable coronary disease.

Methods: Twelve patients (68 ± 7 years) underwent stress (treadmill exercise testing) echocardiography after fasting (8h), after HFM and HCM (2h). Time to 1mm ST-segment depression (time to 1mm) and stress wall motion score index (WMSI) were evaluated.

Association between plasma monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 concentration and cardiovascular disease mortality in middle-aged diabetic and nondiabetic individuals.

Objective: Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2) is a chemokine involved into the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and has prognostic value in the acute and chronic phases in patients with acute coronary syndromes.

Research Design And Methods: MCP-1/CCL2 concentration was measured in plasma fractions of 363 middle-aged overweight/obese individuals (aged 61 +/- 12 years, BMI 30.1 +/- 6.