A Better Way to Predict Diabetes Remission
A Better Way to Predict Diabetes Remission
December 17, 2018
ISRAEL21c – Bariatric surgery, also known as gastric bypass surgery, has long been considered an effective way to achieve type 2 diabetes remission.
However, not all patients who undergo the surgery achieve long-term remission, diminishing the advantages of having such a major medical procedure.
A clinical scoring system called DiaRem is used to help predict post-op diabetes remission for a period of up to one year. However, this is short term and not always accurate.
Now, in a study recently published in “Obesity Surgery,” researchers from Ben-Gurion University have shown that expanding the information calculated in the DiaRem scoring system improves doctors’ ability to predict their patients’ diabetes remission for up to five years.
“We showed that by using our improved predicting score, the Advanced-DiaRem, we were able to predict the long-term probability that the patient undergoing surgery would achieve a remission of their diabetes,” says Dr. Rachel Golan of BGU’s School of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and one of the researchers who conducted the study.
The discovery comes as obesity rates continue to soar at epidemic levels, making it the leading cause of preventable death in Western countries.
“On the most local level, the ability to predict an individual’s reaction to surgery will give both doctors and patients the clarity they need to make informed medical decisions,” says Dr. Golan.