Jothydev was the guest at Physicians Club, Kannur and spoke on "Insulins in 21 century" The program was supported by Aventis Pharma. Dr.K.S Vasu and Dr.Muralidharan T.M are the President and Secretary of the Physician club, respectively. More than 50 doctors participated which included physicians, cardiologists, nephrologists, Medicine PG students from Pariyaram Medical College, etc.,

One question and answer:

One doc: What are the precautions while using inhaled insulins?

Jothydev: Pulmonary function test has to be done before starting inhaled insulin. The drug is contraindicated in Smokers, and with chronic lung disease.The absorption of inhaled insulin is independent of body weight, and, of interest, smoking actually increases systemic insulin absorption. Data prior to the launch of Exubera(first inhaled insulin in the US market) showed a small, nonprogressive difference in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) in patients on inhaled insulin at the end of 2 years. When the insulin is discontinued, baseline returns to that of age-matched controls. A similar pattern is seen with diffusion capacity of the lung (DLco).