During A Monday afternoon Case Studies session, four experts will review the management of four types of diabetes-related nerve injuries and diseases. The two-hour session, Case-Based Management of Neuropathies, will begin at 2:15 p.m. in room 6DE.
Rodica Pop-Busui, MD, PhD
Rodica Pop-Busui, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes, Co-Director of the Michigan Peripheral Neuropathy Center, and Associate Chair for Clinical Research at the University of Michigan, will use case studies to review the diagnosis and management of diabetic gastroparesis. She will discuss its clinical presentation, explain the diagnostic steps, and review practical treatment strategies. She will also discuss scenarios in which hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia affect gastric emptying and review how that affects diabetes management and overall glucose control.
Session attendees will learn how to approach patients who may have gastroparesis and how to differentiate between it and other iatrogenic causes that could delay gastric emptying, Dr. Pop-Busui said.
“This is a very challenging complication for health care providers because gastroparesis may manifest with a broad spectrum of symptoms. But these symptoms are not specific and do not correspond with the severity of gastroparesis,” she said. “In addition, gastroparesis may be clinically silent in the majority of cases.”
Christopher H. Gibbons, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and a staff member at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Joslin Diabetes Center, will examine the connection between prediabetes and neuropathy.
Christopher H. Gibbons, MD
“There’s a key association between prediabetes and neuropathy,” he said. “Prediabetes is not a risk-free condition and warrants an appropriate level of medical attention.”
Dr. Gibbons will present a case study involving a patient with neuropathy as the presenting symptom who is later diagnosed with prediabetes. The case will serve as a jumping-off point for a discussion about the latest epidemiological, basic science, and clinical trial research about the prediabetes-neuropathy association.
“The session will be a very interesting discussion of the neuropathic complications of abnormal glycemic indices and will fit into the larger session discussions of neuropathic complications of diabetes,” Dr. Gibbons said.
J. Robinson Singleton, MD, Professor of Neurology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Director of the Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Salt Lake City Veterans Administration Hospital, will open the session with a case-based review of typical distal symmetric polyneuropathy in diabetes patients.
Vera Bril, MD, FRCPC, BSc, Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Director of Neurology at University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital, will conclude the session with a presentation titled “Diabetic Neuropathy Mimics Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy.”
