Factors influencing the quality of life perception in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Romulus Timar,1 Iulian Velea,2 Bogdan Timar,3 Diana Lungeanu,3 Cristian Oancea,4 Deiana Roman,5 Octavian Mazilu6 1Second Department of Internal Medicine, 2Department of Pediatrics, 3Department of Functional Sciences, 4Department of Infectious Diseases, 5Faculty of General Medicine, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6First Department of Surgery, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania Purpose: To evaluate the impact of several factors on the patient’s perception on quality of life in a group of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Patients and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 198 patients with T2DM were enrolled according to a consecutive-case population-based study design. In all participants, the perception on the quality of life was measured using the quality of life index – diabetes version III proposed by Ferrans and Powers. We evaluated the impact of several anthropometric and diabetes-related (ie, diabetes history and quality of glycemic control) factors on the patient’s perception on the quality of life.Results: The presence of diabetes complications was associated with a decreased quality of life: retinopathy (1 vs 5 points; P<0.001), chronic kidney disease (-1 vs 5 points; P<0.001), and neuropathy (-1 vs 5 points; P<0.001). A significant reverse correlation was found between the patient’s quality of life and depression’s severity (Spearman’s r=-0.345; P<0.001) and body mass index (Spearman’s r=-0.158; P=0.026). A positive association between the quality of life and the quality of diabetes-related self-care activities was found (Spearman’s r=0.338; P<0.001). No significant association was found between the patient’s quality of life and the quality of glycemic control, diabetes duration, age, gender, or smoking status.Conclusion: To improve the patient’s quality of life, special care should be given to the modifiable diabetes-related factors: the prevention and treatment of diabetes complications, treatment of depression, and weight loss in obese and overweight patients. Keywords: quality of life, type 2 diabetes, diabetes complications, diabetes-related self-care activitie

Chromosomal studies on the alpine genus Dolomiaea

Chromosomal characteristics are important for our understanding of the evolutionary history of species diversification. However, these characteristics are as yet unknown for some plant genera, especially those in alpine regions. In this study, our aim was to investigate the chromosome numbers and karyotypes of Dolomiaea, an alpine genus occurring in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and adjacent regions, for the first time. We report the chromosome numbers and karyotypes of 10 species originally assigned to Dolomiaea, one species which has been suggested should be transferred to this genus and one species from the closely related genus Himalaiella. Two chromosome numbers, i.e. 2n = 36 and 2n = 34, were found in these 12 species. One B chromosome was observed in two species. Karyotypes of all the species examined are relatively asymmetrical, and are classified as Stebbins' types 3B and 2B. These findings suggest that polyploidization events played a minor role in species diversification in this alpine genus. Aneuploidy and karyotypic differentiation at the diploid level, instead, contributed greatly to species diversification in this genus. However, many lines of evidence indicate that the ancestor of the genus originated from an ancient polyploidization event. In addition, our results provide cytological evidences of the transference of Frolovia frolovii and Saussurea costus to Dolomiaea, a recent proposal based on molecular phylogenetic context