What To Expect: Fine Needle Aspiration/ Biopsy of the thyroid is usually done in the office (sometimes with ultrasound guidance). The procedure itself lasts about 10 minutes. If needed local anesthetic may be used.
Preprocedure: Avoid aspirin, coumadin for about a week prior to the procedure. Inform us if you have any allergies.
Postprocedure: Typically we have you wait in the lounge for about 30 minutes before you go home. We recommend that you avoid strenuos activity for at least 24 hours. Results are usually communicated to you within five business days.
What To Expect: This test is usually done in the Nuclear Medicine department (radiology). Specific medications may need to be temporarily withheld. Dietary restrictions are noted below.
Preprocedure: Avoid the following foods, starting when instructed prior to your test. 1. Iodized salt, sea salt. 2. Dairy products. 3. Eggs. 4. Seafood. 5. Foods that contain the additives: carrageen -agar, algin, alginates. 6. Cured and corned foods (ham, corned beef, lox, sauerkraut) 7. Bread products that contain iodate dough conditioners. 8. Foods and medications that contain red food dyes, specifically, red dye #3 (erythrosine). 9. Chocolate (for its milk content) 10. Molasses. 11. Soy products.
Ancillary Services
Procedure Description:
What To Expect: Our office also offers in-house ultrasound tests (including thyroid, vascular and other studies),DEXA scan,dynamic endocrine testing,orthotics and special shoes for diabetics, echocardiogram, stress testing,mammography and full fledged X-ray and lab services.
Contact Staff Information
Overland Park Office: Terri, our receptionist may be reached at 913 451 8500
Lorrie, Dr.Menon's nurse may be reached at 913 319 7333 (Messages are preferably left at this number)
Please fax records and other info to 913 451 8575.
Blood glucose data can be e-mailed to bloodsugars@kcim.com Usually, we review the data once a week and will contact you if any changes are to be made. Urgent info may be sent by e-mail, but we request that you alert us by calling so that we can review the info sooner.
Clinical Trials
At this time we are not recruiting for new trials. Please check back later.
Did you read this?
Immune system therapy may preserve some insulin production in children with type 1 diabetes, researchers say. Bloomberg News (10/8, Kelley) reported, "An experimental immune system therapy may help preserve some cells crucial to insulin production in children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, the most severe form of the disease," according to a study published in the Oct. 8 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. For the study, researchers "used a naturally occurring protein found in the brain and pancreas, called glutamic acid decarboxylase, that has been known to be effective in preventing the onset of diabetes in mice." They tested the therapy "against a placebo in 70 newly diagnosed diabetics 10 to 18 years old who were taking insulin." The researchers found that the drug "showed subtle efficacy only when administered to children within the first six months after diagnosis," after which the treatment was ineffective. "After 30 months, patients taking the therapy showed a smaller decline in their levels of C-peptide, a protein that reflects secretion of insulin in the body." MedPage Today (10/8, Phend) added, "The children were "randomized to double-blind treatment at eight pediatric clinics in Sweden with two injections of either 20 ìg of a vaccine formulated with recombinant glutamic acid decarboxylase and alum (Diamyd) or alum placebo." Both groups exhibited "declining beta-cell function over time" in "periodic mixed-meal tolerance tests to stimulate residual insulin secretion." The study found that "the vaccine did not significantly halt the decline in fasting C-peptide levels after 15 months, the primary endpoint, compared with baseline (?0.12 versus ?0.17 nmol/l, P=0.28)." The difference in decline, however, "reached significance by 30 months (?0.21 versus ?0.27 nmol/l, P=0.045)." The researchers said, "Although the trial missed its primary endpoint of improving C-peptide levels at 15 months and had no effect on insulin requirements or glucose levels, the results were promising compared with other type 1 diabetes prevention efforts." WebMD (10/8, Hitti) also covered the story. Studies aim to halt autoimmune attack destroying insulin cells. U.S. News & World Report (10/8, Lyon) reported that in a study at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, researchers "are injecting adult volunteers with the very immune cells that make them ill, cells that transmit the 'kill' command that launches the attack on the pancreas." Researchers "first remove the cells from each patient...and, before reinjecting the cells, treat them in the lab to make them unable to communicate their orders." The study is expected to "have data on 15 patients sometime next year." In a separate study, published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, "lab researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine morphed human skin cells into cells that make insulin." This approach "could theoretically offer an alternative to pancreatic cell transplantation," a procedure that "is reserved for the sickest adult diabetics because the transplanted cells come from cadavers, and the immunosuppressive drugs needed to prevent their rejection have major downsides." According to lead researcher Yi Zhang, however, "If some of a patient's own cells could be converted into beta cells, rejection wouldn't be an issue." GAD-targeting vaccine may help patients with type-1 diabetes change immune system response. HealthDay (10/8, Gordon) reported that "Swedish researchers have developed a vaccine that may change the way the immune system responds in people who are newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes," according to findings published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Johnny Ludvigsson, the study's lead author, explained that "in type 1 diabetes, insulin-producing cells are killed by their own immune system in a 'civil war,'" and this "leads to a lack of insulin in the body." Previous "research on interrupting an immune system gone awry has focused on drugs that suppress the immune system," and while scientists had "some success in slowing or stopping early-onset diabetes, that success came at a cost." Yet, the current research "focuses on the immune response, rather than trying to blunt the entire immune system." Specifically, the researchers targeted "a protein called GAD (glutamic acid decarboxylase)," WebMD (10/8, Hitti) noted. GAD, "which is found in the brain and in insulin-secreting cells of the pancreas, isn't a problem in people without type 1 diabetes." For those patients, however, "the body's immune system attacks the pancreas, and GAD is part of that attack." But "injections of a substance called GAD-alum" targeted the protein. In fact, after randomizing patients to either "two GAD-alum shots or two placebo shots," the investigators found that "GAD-alum treatment helped preserve insulin-secreting pancreatic cells, but only in patients whose type 1 diabetes had been diagnosed within the past six months." Although "all of the patients still needed insulin shots and their insulin secretion still declined during the study, which lasted for two and one-half years," the researchers maintain that "the decline in those cells wasn't as steep in the patients who got the GAD-alum shots."
Contact Staff Information
Overland Park Office: Terri, our receptionist may be reached at 913 451 8500
Lorrie, Dr.Menon's nurse may be reached at 913 319 7333 (Messages are preferably left at this number)
Please fax records and other info to 913 451 8575.
Blood glucose data can be e-mailed to bloodsugars@kcim.com Usually, we review the data once a week and will contact you if any changes are to be made. Urgent info may be sent by e-mail, but we request that you alert us by calling so that we can review the info sooner.
Recent Publications
Some of them..
"Apolipoprotein E gene polymorphism alters lipids before pancreas transplantation" Transplantation 10/02 Vol.74, 974-977,No.7
"C-reactive protein is high in pancreas transplant candidates and decreases after successful pancreas transplantation".
"Idiopathic hypothalamic dysfunction with precocious puberty and adipsic hypernatremia" Pediatrics.
"Lipoatrophic diabetes and N.A.S.H. with recurrence following liver transplantation." Transplantation, Vol.71,892-895, No.7. 04/01.
"Apo E Genotype frequency not different in Pancreas Transplantation candidates compared to normal population". Poster- Endocrine Society's 82nd Annual Meeting, Toronto
