All-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes in association with achieved hemoglobin A(1c), systolic blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.

Background: To identify the ranges of hemoglobin A(1c) (HbA1c), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels which are associated with the lowest all-cause mortality.

Methods: A retrospective cohort of 12,643 type 2 diabetic patients (aged ≥18 years) were generated from 2002 to 2010, in Far-Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei city, Taiwan. Patients were identified to include any outpatient diabetes diagnosis (ICD-9: 250), and drug prescriptions that included any oral hypoglycemic agents or insulin prescribed during the 6 months following their first outpatient visit for diabetes.

Short-term case fatality rate and associated factors among inpatients with diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state: a hospital-based analysis over a 15-year period.

Background And Purpose: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state (HHS) are usually life threatening, but the recent trend of 28-day case-fatality and associated risk factors including Charlson index have not been known. Our aim was to evaluate the 28-day case-fatality rate among hospitalized DKA and HHS patients in a teaching hospital in Taiwan from 1991 to 2005.

Methods: DKA and HHS admissions, identified from in-patient electronic database, were linked to Taiwan's national death registry.

Bartter's syndrome with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

We report a rare case of Bartter's syndrome in a 35-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The patient presented with leg weakness, fatigue, polyuria and polydipsia. Hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, and high renin and aldosterone concentrations were present, but the patient was normotensive.

Seroprevalence of hepatitis B and C in type 2 diabetic patients.

Background: Many reports in the literature suggest that chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with diabetes, but the results are conflicting. The aim of our study was to investigate the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HCV infections in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients.

Methods: We collected 820 consecutive type 2 diabetic patients attending 2 of 5 outpatient endocrinology clinics in Far Eastern Memorial Hospital from March to July 2003.

Spontaneous pregnancy and partial recovery of pituitary function in a patient with Sheehan's syndrome.

Sheehan's syndrome is caused by pregnancy-related hemorrhage leading to ischemic necrosis of the anterior pituitary gland and hypopituitarism. Spontaneous pregnancy in Sheehan's syndrome is very rare. We report the case of a patient with Sheehan's syndrome who suffered from anterior pituitary insufficiency, but with sparing of gonadotropic function.

Chronic glue sniffing with transient central hypothyroidism and hypergonadotropism.

Neuropsychiatric, gastrointestinal and muscular disorders associated with glue sniffing have been widely reported, but endocrinologic abnormalities of glue exposure are rarely mentioned in the literature. We report a 26-year old male patient, a chronic glue sniffer, who presented with weakness of both lower limbs. On physical examination, he had reduced muscle strength of his 4 limbs, especially in his lower limbs.