A LITERATURE REVIEW ABOUT DIABETES MELLITUS

Abstract

Diabetes is defined as chronic hyperglycemia associated with defects in intermediary metabolism. Intermediate metabolism is what regulates glucose in the body, so it can be said that diabetes is a metabolic disease that is characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from defects in the secretion and (or also) in the action of insulin. Despite engagement in public prevention campaigns, diabetes is still a serious public health problem that affects the lives of millions of people around the world. Therefore, this narrative literature review brought together articles from PUBMED aiming to describe the pathophysiology and diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. It was concluded that the most complete explanation of the pathophysiology of DM is the destroyed octet, which suggests eight mechanisms that corroborate hyperglycemia. For diagnosis, the following tests are explored: fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin and oral glucose intolerance test. The only situation in which the diagnosis can be made without the need for test confirmation is when the patient has symptoms of DM with random blood glucose above 200 mg/dL.