Personalized Diabetes Therapy Part 1 - Functional Phenotyping may Provide the Basis for an Individual Diabetes Treatment

Diagnosis of type 2 diabetes using the classical clinical and laboratory biomarkers (HbA1c, glucose, lipids, BMI, and blood pressure) is a classification by symptoms and does not provide insight into the underlying pathophysiological disorders (insulin resistance, ß-cell dysfunction, visceral adipose tissue hormonal secretion, and chronic systemic inflammation). A better understanding of these disorders may help for the selection of appropriate and potentially more successful personalized therapeutic interventions. Based on an extensive clinical trial experience, a method for individual phenotyping and consecutive personalized diabetes therapy has been developed in our practice, which we have been using for more than 15 years and which we would like to share for discussion and debate. In this part 1, the pathophysiological background and the diagnostic approach to phenotyping will be described. A consecutive part 2 will present the translation of the phenotyping result into a personalized diabetes therapy and will provide real-world patient examples when practicing this concept.