Urgent Message: Diabetes mellitus is a common, complex and important condition frequently encountered in the urgent care setting. This article reviews current diagnostic criteria for diabetes and prediabetes and types of diabetes and discusses issues related to screening for diabetes and management issues relevant to urgent care. The authors previously reviewed the management of acute hyperglycemia in the July/August 2012 issue of JUCM. Author: Anthony J. Pick, MD, CDE and David L. Pick, MD, FAAFP …
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37-year-old diabetic female feeling weak after switching diuretics
The patient is a 37-year-old female who presented with a history of longstanding hypertension and diabetes mellitus. She had recently started on a new diuretic, and felt very weak and lightheaded. Her blood pressure was 88/56 mmHg with a pulse of 44 beats per minute. After reviewing the ECG, consider the following questions: 1. Based on this ECG, what type of diuretic is she likely to be taking? 2. How should she be managed?
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Type 2 diabetic male experiencing painful rash
The patient is a 51-year-old male with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes who presents with a painful, raised, pruritic rash that began after an afternoon of gardening eight days ago. In the interim, he self-treated with over-the-counter topical hydrocortisone 1 percent without relief. View the photo and consider what your diagnosis or next steps would be.
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Diabetic Emergencies in the Urgent Care Setting
Urgent message: Patients with glucose levels either too high or too low often require immediate, potentially life-saving interventions in the urgent care setting. These patients are often found to be diabetic. Allan F. Moore, MD, Nicolas Abourizk, MD, Jeffrey Collins, MD, MA Diabetes is a common chronic disease affecting approximately 7% of the United States population. Of these individuals, 17.5 million carry a diagnosis of diabetes and over 6 million are undiagnosed. An estimated 54 …
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