Page 31 - SAM September 2019

UT HEALTH

Jane Lynch, M.D., a pediatric endocrinol- viduals with youth-onset disease is often approval in June of a new injectable drug,
ogist at UT Health San Antonio, is truly on much more rapid than it is in individuals liraglutide, for Type 2 diabetes in youth as
the front lines of San Antonio’s alarming who develop the disease later in life. Now young as age 10.
increase of Type 2 diabetes in children. in their 20s, the TODAY participants are That is a bit of good news in an other-
Since 2005, more than 1,000 youth under experiencing life-changing health conse- wise difficult landscape for these children
the age of 18 have been diagnosed with the quences caused by Type 2 diabetes at the and their families. Still, families must cope
disease in her clinic at the Texas Diabetes earliest stages of adulthood: with aggressive symptoms, few medication
Institute on South Zarzamora Street. The options and challenging compliance. This is
youngest was only 5 years old at the time of • Five deaths have occurred in this the hard reality on the front lines of this
diagnosis. young adult population. devastating epidemic.
Type 2 diabetes was once known as adult- • More than 50% of participants have However, research is the key to a better
onset diabetes because of its usual manifes- abnormal lipids. tomorrow. Dr. Lynch is part of a cadre of
tation when people are in their 40s or 50s, • More than 60% have high blood diabetes experts at UT Health San Antonio
and often after years of struggling with pressure. that is conducting visionary research and in-
being overweight or obese, poor diet and a • About 40% of participants have evi- corporating the latest findings into preem-
lack of exercise. Increasingly, however, dence of early diabetic kidney dis- inent patient care. Lives will be changed as
physicians are seeing much younger patients ease. a result.
affected by the disease. • Almost 50% of participants have Young people are our greatest resource.
Heeding the warning signs, Dr. Lynch evidence of diabetic retinal disease. We will fight this scourge with all our might
and collaborators nationwide initiated a • Up to 33% of participants demon- to keep it from further harming the lives of
study in 2004 called TODAY (Treatment strate signs of early diabetic nerve our children.
Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents disease.
and Youth). The study enrolled and treated • 25% of pregnancies with known William L. Henrich,
adolescents with youth-onset Type 2 dia- outcomes resulted in miscarriage or MD, MACP, a nephrologist
betes until 2011. fetal death. and professor of medicine, has
The study’s comparison of metformin, • 24% of these pregnancies were been president of UT Health
rosiglitazone and lifestyle intervention preterm births. San Antonio since 2009.
yielded underwhelming results. All partici- With missions of teaching,
pants declined in pancreatic function with The findings suggest health care profes- research, healing and commu-
each passing year. sionals need to aggressively treat young pa- nity engagement, UT Health San Antonio is one
At the conclusion of the study in 2011, tients battling Type 2 diabetes to minimize of the country’s leading health sciences universities.
all participants were invited to remain for the damage from serious diabetes-related www.uthscsa.edu
an observational phase. It has followed 517 complications. This intensive management
participants who have had the disease for depends on coordinated care by teams of The University of Texas Health Science Center
an average of 12 years. expert providers. It also requires families’ at San Antonio, now called UT Health San An-
At annual patient visits, information was commitment to continue to seek care, even tonio, is one of the country’s leading health sciences
gathered using laboratory testing, echocar- if their child’s disease has stabilized. universities. With missions of teaching, research,
diograms, vessel function testing and eye Additionally, more medications are healing and community engagement, its schools of
examinations. Researchers also collected needed for this disease in children. Until re- medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and
each participant’s medical history to chart cently, metformin and insulin were the only graduate biomedical sciences have produced 36,500
any diabetes-related events. These data were therapies approved by the Food and Drug alumni who are leading change, advancing their
presented at the 2019 American Diabetes Administration for Type 2 in children. En- fields and renewing hope for patients and their fam-
Association meetings in San Francisco. couragingly, data from an international ilies throughout South Texas and the world. To
The researchers found the development study in which Dr. Lynch and her col- learn about the many ways “We make lives better,”
of diabetes-related complications in indi- leagues assisted, called Ellipse, led to FDA visit www.uthscsa.edu.

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