Diabetes Mellitus: Classification, Pathophysiology, Clinical Features, Management and Complications

A pathology presentation defining diabetes as a group of metabolic diseases characterised by hyperglycaemia from a defect in insulin secretion, insulin action or both, then separating type I as insulin-dependent, juvenile, brittle and ketosis-prone from type II as insulin-independent, maturity-onset and ketosis-resistant, with gestational diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance. It works through the causes and risk factors, pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, management and complications, and ends by placing diabetes among the other endocrine disorders a student must know, from Cushing's syndrome, Addison's disease and phaeochromocytoma to thyroid, parathyroid and pituitary disease.