Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

A Clinico-Pathological Study Of The Structural And Functional Changes In The Retina And Optic Nerve Following Diabetic Retinopathy Treatments, Richard Filek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the result of microvascular changes in the retina due to hyperglycemia which alter the blood-retinal barrier (BRB). The increased permeability of BRB results in the accumulation of extracellular fluid, the development of diabetic macular edema (DME) and capillary occlusion. Capillary occlusion results in retinal ischemia which increases vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels, increases vascular permeability and results in neovascularization in proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) patients. The treatments clinically used for DR are panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) for PDR and injectable vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors (anti-VEGFs) for DME.

The safety of PRP and anti-VEGF therapy on …

Antihyperglycemic Medications And Hypoglycemia In Older Adults With Diabetes, Kristin K. Clemens

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: In the last decade, several new antihyperglycemic medications have been approved to treat people with diabetes. However, the hypoglycemia risk of these medications in older adults in routine clinical practice remains unclear. Further, there is limited understanding as to how these medications are being prescribed to older adults in our region.

Methods: We carried out retrospective, population-based studies of adults age 66 and older in Ontario, Canada using linked healthcare databases. We first investigated the real-world hypoglycemia risk of 2 antihyperglycemic medications – glyburide and modified-release gliclazide. In an ecological study, we then examined trends in antihyperglycemic medication prescriptions, …

Elucidating The Function Of Transplanted Islets Of Langerhans And Predicting Their Ability To Reverse Diabetes, Andrew R. Pepper

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Type 1 diabetics require daily injections of exogenous insulin to control hyperglycemia. Unfortunately, patients are still plagued by vascular and hypoglycemic complications. Beta cell replacement therapy by either whole organ pancreas or islet transplantation has been shown to restore carbohydrate control to these patients. A major barrier to successful islet transplantation is the lack of a reliable pre-transplant assay of post-transplant function thus providing an objective measure of whether a particular islet isolation should be transplanted. Such an assay would also prove to be a valuable tool in the experimental evaluation of innovative islet isolation strategies and technologies. The initial …