American College of Endocrinology
Consensus Development Conference on Inpatient Diabetes And Metabolic Control

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Acute renal failure:

Renal failure: The reduction in the ability of the kidneys to filter waste products from the blood and excrete them in the urine, to control the body's water and salt balance, and to regulate the blood pressure. The resultant buildup of waste products (and other chemical disturbances in the blood and tissues) leads to symptoms that vary in severity. This combination of symptoms is sometimes called uremia. Acute: A term used to describe a disorder or symptom that comes on suddenly. Acute conditions may or may not be severe, and they are usually of short duration.

Algorithm:

A process or set of rules by which a calculation or process can be carried out, usually referring to calculations.

Cerebrovascular disease:

Any disease affecting an artery within and supplying blood to the brain-for example, atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) or constitutional defects or weaknesses in arterial walls causing aneurysm (permanent swelling in an artery). The disease may eventually lead to cerebrovascular accident (sudden blockage or rupture of a blood vessel), most commonly leading to the features of stroke. Extensive narrowing of blood vessels throughout the brain can be a cause of dementia.

Cholestasis:

Stagnation of bile in the small blue ducts within the liver, which leads to a characteristic type of jaundice and to liver disease. The obstruction to the flow of bile may be intrahepatic (within the liver) or extrahepatic (in the bile ducts outside the liver).

Critical care:

Health care provided to a critically ill patient during a medical emergency or crisis.

Critical illness:

A crucial state of illness from which it is uncertain whether or not the patient will recover.

Fasting blood glucose:

The amount of glucose in your blood after you have not eaten for 8 to 10 hours. Usually measured before breakfast, your fasting glucose is normal if it is below 100 mg/dL.

Glucose:

The body's chief resource of energy for cell metabolism. A monosaccharide (simple sugar) carbohydrate, it comes principally from the digestion of other carbohydrates, although a small amount is also produced in cells by the metabolism of fats and proteins.

Glucose tolerance test:

A measure of how well the body handles a standardized sugary drink. A normal result is less than or equal to 140 mg/dL, two hours after the standard glucose drink.

Hyperglycemia:

An abnormally high level of glucose (sugar) in the blood. The condition occurs in people suffering from untreated or inadequately controlled diabetes mellitus; it may also occur in diabetics as a result of an infection, stress or surgery. The symptoms of hyperglycemia are the same as those of diabetes: thirst, the passing of large amounts of urine, glycosuria (glucose in the urine) and ketosis (an accumulation of ketones in the body). In severe cases, hyperglycemia may lead to confusion and coma, which require emergency medical treatment with insulin and intravenous infusion of fluids.

Inflammation:

One of the ways in which the immune system tries to limit the damage when tissue is injured.

Insulin:

A hormone produced by the pancreas in varying amounts depending on the level of blood glucose (sugar). Carbohydrate is absorbed as glucose, increasing the blood glucose level and stimulating the pancreas to produce insulin. Insulin promotes the absorption of glucose into the liver and into muscle cells (where it is converted into energy). In the liver, glucose is stored as glycogen, which is reconverted to glucose in response to stress or exercise.

Insulin resistance:

A condition in which the body does not utilize insulin efficiently. Difficult to measure directly, insulin resistance can occur whether or not the level of glucose in the blood is normal.

Intensive care:

The constant, close monitoring of seriously ill patients, which enables immediate treatment to be given if the patient's condition deteriorates. The intensive-care unit of a hospital contains electronic monitoring equipment that allows continuous assessment of vital body functions such as blood pressure, and heart and respiratory rate. Medical and nursing staff are in a high ratio to patients and are specially trained in the techniques of resuscitation.

Nosocomial:

Originating or taking place in a hospital, such as a nosocomial infection.

Polyneuropathy:

A disorder that involves slowly progressive or repeated episodes of loss of movement or sensation, related to inflammation of multiple nerves. Chronic inflammatory polyneuropathy affects approximately 6 out of 10,000 people. It is a common type of damage to nerves not in the brain or spinal cord (peripheral neuropathy) involving multiple nerves (polyneuropathy). An acute form of the disorder (Guillain-Barré syndrome) also exists. Polyneuropathy implies a widespread process that usually affects both sides of the body equally. The cause of chronic inflammatory polyneuropathy is seen as an immune response. The specific antigens, immune process and triggering factors are variable and in many cases are unknown.

Thrombolytic therapy:

Thrombolytic therapy is the use of drugs that dissolve blood clots. Thrombolytic therapy uses drugs called thrombolytic agents such as alteplase (Activase), anistreplase (Eminase), streptokinase (Streptase, Kabikinase), urokinase (Abbokinase) and tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) to dissolve clots. These drugs are given as injections, only under a physician's supervision.