New Horizons in Diabetology
1Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
3Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, Canada
New Horizons in Diabetology
Description
The prevalence of diabetes has alarmingly increased in both developed and developing countries all across the world in the recent years. The prevalence of different complications and comorbid conditions associated with diabetes is also rampantly increasing, thereby negatively affecting lives of many people. In fact, obesity which is associated with diabetes is considered as a major public health concern in many countries. Nevertheless, it can be argued that little progress has been made in the field of diagnosis and treatment of diabetes during the past decades. Arguably, many believe that the discovery of insulin was not followed by further significant advances in the field of management of diabetes.
Diagnostic and screening approaches to diabetes have evolved considerably in the recent decades. Saccharometers are replaced by elaborated laboratory techniques and glucometers. However, there are still limitations to such technologies and they cannot be used in large scales, and, in pediatric endocrinology, they are not well complied.
In the field of management of diabetes, similarly, although impressive advances have been made, we still fall short of offering a cure for the disease. Many believe that the progress we have made in the management of diabetes has mainly focused on the invention of more efficient insulin preparations and improved techniques for its delivery.
Notwithstanding the shortcomings, there have been positive signs of progress in terms of finding a cure for diabetes. Pancreas transplantation, although initially considered to be unsuccessful, is expected to be applied in a large scale in the future as immunosuppressive medications develop further. Pancreatic islet-cell transplantation is yet another potentially curative option for diabetes. However, shortage of donors poses great limitations to this procedure. Fortunately though, stem-cells are suitable alternatives for pancreatic cell even though stem-cell research is hindered by ethical concerns in many countries.
The scarcity of the literature in the mentioned fields, however, can be considered as a hindrance to further advancement of the science of diabetology. Therefore, we invite authors to submit original research and review papers investigating the new horizons in screening, diagnosis, and treatment of diabetes.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Novel approaches to screening and diagnosis of diabetes such as biosensors
- Personalized medicine in diagnosis and management of diabetes
- Whole pancreas transplantation
- Pancreatic islet-cell transplantation
- The application of stem-cell technology in treatment of diabetes
- Artificial pancreas
- Advances in the management of obesity
- New medications for management of diabetes