Screening for Diabetes in Persons with Cystic Fibrosis: Current Situation on the Ground

Dr. Larson Ode

Many persons who have cystic fibrosis develop diabetes at some point. In its early mild stages, diabetes can have few symptoms. Despite the lack of symptoms, mild diabetes still can damage the eyes, kidneys, and nerves. Furthermore, in those with cystic fibrosis, diabetes can worsen lung disease and increase the risk of mortality. For these reasons, it is important to screen for diabetes in persons who have cystic fibrosis. To accomplish this, the recommendations are to perform an oral glucose tolerance test yearly in those over age 10 with cystic fibrosis. To assess how well this recommendation Is being carried out, a group of physicians, including Dr. Larson Ode from our division, surveyed medical centers. Unfortunately, less than half of centers were screening at least half of persons with cystic fibrosis. These results indicate that further progress is needed in screening persons with cystic fibrosis for diabetes. These results are published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology and can be found at the following links (pubmed & doi).

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