Systematic approach to the management of the Type II diabetic patient: case presentation

Recently there has been a trend toward more aggressive management of people with diabetes. This stems from the conclusive clinical data that substantiate the benefit of tight glycemic control. It is clear that achieving near normoglycemia in people with diabetes will prevent and slow the progression of the microvascular complications and reduce the risk of the macrovascular complications. Clinicians now have multiple agents with differing mechanisms and sites of action allowing them to individualize the medication regimen and move toward normalizing the blood glucose levels. The following case is representative of a typical patient with Type II diabetes. This patient presents with multiple disease states and various treatment issues that must be addressed. An in-depth evaluation of the patient case is presented along with recommendations for drug therapy modifications.