Fast Five Quiz: Hyperglycemia Associated With Type 2 Diabetes

Anne L. Peters, MD

Disclosures

January 26, 2022

Figure 1. A glucose meter.

Insulin resistance can produce an imbalance in glucose metabolism that generates chronic hyperglycemia, which in turn triggers oxidative stress and causes an inflammatory response that results in cell damage.

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by a combination of peripheral insulin resistance and inadequate insulin secretion. However, the pathophysiologic role of excess glucagon cannot be underestimated. Type 2 diabetes is an islet paracrinopathy in which the reciprocal relationship between the glucagon-secreting alpha cell and the insulin-secreting beta cell is lost, leading to hyperglucagonemia followed by the resultant hyperglycemia.

As glucose tolerance progresses from normal to abnormal, postprandial blood glucose levels increase first; in time, fasting hyperglycemia develops.

Learn more about hyperglycemia and the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes.

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