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Review: The dark ages of diabetes

Clinical Diabetes, Curzon House, Curzon Street, Gotham, Nottinghamshire, NG11 OHQ, UK, robert.tattersall{at}virgin.net

At the time of Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, diabetes was still relatively uncommon. In the young the situation was profoundly depressing. Those whose lives had been saved by insulin in the previous 30 years were now succumbing to blindness, kidney failure and heart attacks for which there was no treatment. Clinics were poorly organised, patchily distributed and, except in major cities, run by general physicians with no training in the management of chronic disease. Yet, in the five years after the coronation, the seeds of many future advances including the delineation of diabetic angiopathy, photocoagulation and diabetes specialist nurses were sown by pioneers whose work went largely unrecognised at the time.

Key Words: diabetic angiopathy • photocoagulation • diabetes specialist nurses • history of diabetes.

References

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• The effect of solar light on the retina had been known for centuries and Socrates mentioned the danger of looking directly at the sun during an eclipse and suggested viewing its reflection in water. In 1912 an eclipse on a cloudless day caused hundreds of macular burns in Europe.
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The British Journal of Diabetes & Vascular Disease, Vol. 2, No. 6, 423-426 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/14746514020020060201


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This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Tattersall, R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?