A Real-World Setting Study: Which Glucose Meter Could Be the Best for POCT Use? An Easy and Applicable Protocol During the Hospital Routine.

The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the reliability and robustness of six glucose meters for point-of-care testing in our wards using a brand-new protocol. During a 30-days study period a total of 50 diabetes patients were subjected to venous blood sampling and glucose meter blood analysis. The results of six glucose meters were compared with our laboratory reference assay.

Asymptomatic primary hyperparathyroidism: surgical and medical management.

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine disorder, frequently asymptomatic. Notwithstanding, mild PHPT may cause adverse skeletal effects that include high bone remodeling, reduced bone mineral density (BMD), and increased fracture risk. The definitive therapy for symptomatic and asymptomatic PHPT (aPHPT) is parathyroidectomy, which has been shown to increase BMD.

Skeletal effect of natural early menopause.

It is well-known that women with spontaneous or natural early menopause (NEM) (between ages of 40 and 45 yr) experience an increased risk of overall mortality, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, neurological and/or psychiatric diseases, and other sequelae. On the contrary, the role of NEM is more contentious on the long-term bone consequences. The published data highlight that NEM has an ambiguous effect on bone mineral density, and is associated with an increased incidence of fractures, likely related to other risk factors rather than to osteoporosis.

Skeletal effects of oral anticoagulants.

Vitamin K antagonists (VKA) are often used as oral anticoagulants (OA) in order to prevent thromboembolic diseases. In bone, vitamin K reduces bone resorption and functions as a co-factor in the post-translational carboxylation of several bone proteins. Osteocalcin (OC), the most abundant of these bone matrix proteins, is produced by osteoblasts and released in small amounts in blood as a specific marker of bone formation.

Metabolic syndrome in primary aldosteronism and essential hypertension: relationship to adiponectin gene variants.

Background And Aims: Evidence shows that aldosterone excess is crucial for the development of cardiac and metabolic complications. Among the possible pathogenetic elements of the metabolic syndrome, adiponectin and its polymorphisms seem to confer a genetic risk for metabolic alterations and type 2 diabetes. Aims of the study were to investigate whether metabolic syndrome represents a common feature in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) compared with essential hypertensives (EH) and to study the impact of two common adiponectin gene variants on the parameters of metabolic syndrome.