This book provides the reader with comprehensive information on the epidemiology, etiology, pathogenesis, pathophysiology, clinical features, prevention, and treatment of diabetes with the aim of empowering health care providers in their daily battle against the disease. Diabetes has been identified by WHO and the United Nations as a medical emergency because of the increase in its global prevalence, which may reach one billion in three to four decades if the trend remains unchanged. Despite improved care that is helping to prolong life, diabetes impacts substantially on the quality of life of those affected and kills or disables several million people each year. The disease is systemic because all organs, tissues, and cells suffer in the presence of hyperglycemia and are damaged by the diabetic milieu. Unfortunately, most patients with diabetes will consequently experience chronic diabetic complications. This book, combining basic science with a practical clinical orientation, will be of value for all physicians and nurses who care for patients with diabetes.

Enzo Bonora is Full Professor and Director of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Diseases Section in the School of Medicine and Surgery, Verona University, Verona, Italy. He is current president of the Italian Society of Diabetes (2014-6). Professor Bonora's clinical activity has covered the entire spectrum of endocrine and metabolic disease, both acute and chronic, and his areas of scientific research include insulin secretion and metabolism in normal subjects and various disease states, the treatment of diabetes mellitus, and the epidemiology and risk factors for type 2 diabetes and its chronic complications. He is the author of more than 220 articles in international peer-reviewed journals.

Ralph A. DeFronzo is Professor at the UT Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, USA, where he is Director of the Diabetes Research Unit. He is also Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio. His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome, and the etiology and treatment of diabetic nephropathy. He is the author of 55 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, as well as a variety of other publications.