Endocrine & Diabetic Complications

Diabetes

Diabetes describes a group of metabolic diseases characterized by high blood sugar levels. Diabetes can be caused by the pancreas not producing insulin (type 1 diabetes) or by insulin resistance (cells do not respond to insulin; type 2 diabetes).

Diabetes insipidus Patients with diabetes insipidus have excessive thirst and excrete large amounts of extremely diluted urine. Diabetes insipidus is generally a result of either a lack of antidiuretic hormone or insensitivity to antidiuretic hormone causing kidney or nephron dysfunction.

Type 1 diabetes (also known as diabetes mellitus) is an autoimmune disease in which immune cells attack and destroy the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. The loss of insulin leads to the inability to regulate blood sugar levels. Patients are usually treated by insulin-replacement therapy.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus, the most frequent subtype of diabetes, is a disease characterized by high levels of blood glucose (hyperglycaemia). It arises from a resistance to and relative deficiency of the pancreatic β-cell hormone insulin.