CMRI RESEARCHER TO PROVIDE UPDATE ON NATIONAL PEDIATRIC TYPE 2 DIABETES RESEARCH STUDY

Kenneth C. Copeland, M.D., Ruth and Paul Jonas Chair in Endocrinology/Diabetes and endowed chair for Children's Medical Research Institute will be providing a progress report on the national childhood "TODAY" diabetes study.   This study, which represents a long-standing partnership between the OU Children's Physicians Diabetes Center and several Native American tribes across the state of Oklahoma, will be provided at the national conference entitled, "Reducing Health Disparities in American Indians and Alaska Natives by Preventing Diabetes Throughout the Life Cycle."   The conference is to be held August 21 through 24 at the Cox Business Services Convention Center in Oklahoma City.

The "TODAY" trial, an acronym that stands for T reatment O ptions for Type 2 D iabetes in A dolescents and Y outh, is one of the largest pediatric diabetes trials ever funded by the National Institute of Health, and the first study of its kind in the world, designed to address the new epidemic of type 2 diabetes in children.

Dr. Copeland is the Principal investigator for the state of Oklahoma and the Vice-Chairman of the study nationally.   His team has been gathering data for 2 years now and is still enrolling for 2 more years in an effort to identify every child in the state of Oklahoma that develops type 2 diabetes.   The team hopes to uncover the best way to treat diabetes and to determine which medicines work the best in coordination with lifestyle changes.

The top four risk factors for type 2 diabetes are; obesity, having a strong family history of type 2 diabetes, ethnicity (especially Native American, Hispanic or African American) and acanthosis nigricans (darkening of the skin of the neck and under arms).   "A large part of what we do is to get the word out to watch for these risk factors," said Dr. Copeland.  

Two years into the study, Oklahoma has enrolled more patients than any of the other 12 participating Centers nationally, including the Joslin Clinic in Boston, Yale, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and Texas Children's Hospital at Baylor.  

The study has already produced 3 papers to the American Diabetes Association and hopes to have all of the results by 2010.   "We anticipate that the results from this study will define for the next several decades the best way to treat type 2 diabetes in childhood," said Dr. Copeland, "and are likely to appear in every pediatric textbook for the next 20 years."

This event is co-sponsored by the Native American EXPORT Center in the College of Public Health at the OU Health Sciences Center and the Oklahoma City Area Indian Health Service.   For more information on the conference, please visit the website at http://export.ouhsc.edu/Conference.html or call 405-271-3090 , ext. 46841.