Type 2 diabetes mellitus has become an epidemic, and virtually no physician is without patients who have the disease. Whereas insulin insensitivity is an early phenomenon partly related to obesity, pancreas -cell function declines gradually over time already before the onset of clinical hyperglycaemia. Several mechanisms have been proposed, including increased non-esterified fatty acids, inflammatory cytokines, adipokines, and mitochondrial dysfunction for insulin resistance, and glucotoxicity, lipotoxicity, and amyloid formation for -cell dysfunction. Moreover, the disease has a strong genetic component, but only a handful of genes have been identified so far: genes for calpain 10, potassium inward-rectifier 6·2, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ␥, insulin receptor substrate-1, and others. Management includes not only diet and exercise, but also combinations of antihyperglycaemic drug treatment with lipid-lowering, antihypertensive, and anti platelet therapy.
Glucose concentration in venous plasma (mmol/L)
Diabetes mellitusFasting у7·0 or 2-h post-glucose load у11·1 Impaired glucose tolerance Fasting (if measured) Ͻ7·0 and 2-h post-glucose load у7·8 and Ͻ11·1 Impaired fasting glucose Fasting у6·1 and Ͻ7·0 and 2 h post-glucose load (if measured) Ͻ7·8Glucose load=75 g glucose orally. 10