Something Old:

We sometimes think of diabetes as a “modern” disease, one that proliferates in cultures with sedentary lifestyles and diets rich in refined sugars; whereas a disease like rickets is an “archaic” disease, essentially wiped away by a modern understanding of basic nutrition.

However, it’s not true. Not as far as diabetes goes, anyway. Diabetes was one of the first diseases described, with medical records reaching back to a 3500-year-old Egyptian scroll which described “too great emptying of the urine.” Even the term “diabetes” isn’t a modern invention, but was coined by Apollonius of Memphis more than 2200 years ago.¹

Something New:

But you know what is a modern invention? The Defender Smart Boot^TM. We’ve learned quite a bit about disease function since Apollonius’ time, and apparently, form follows function. That’s right, Defender worked with former Nike Designer Mike DiTullo to make sure the boot looked as good as it worked. Despite the fact that 85% of nontraumatic amputations arise from diabetic foot ulcers, only 1.7% of foot clinics in the US use the old total contact casts that are supposed to help prevent this issue.²

So Defender built a new product that does a better-than-ever job of redistributing weight away from at-risk areas of the foot. And it looks great while doing it!

Something Borrowed:

It’s nice to see people inventing their own things, rather than creating less-precise facsimiles of other people’s tried-and-true technology. A recent study compared Transonic’s hemodialysis tech to that of an upstart, NIKISSO (DBB-EXA), which was purported by the manufacturer to perform the same function. This portion of the conclusion offers a succinct summary: “In conclusion, the DBB-EXA™ method underestimates VA flow rates compared to the Transonic® technique, resulting in a limited accuracy of 62%. … The DBB-EXA™ method could be used as a simple tool for a rough estimate of VA flow rates but cannot replace the Transonic® reference method.”³

Something Blue… and White?

So to what Transonic reference method are they referring? I’m so glad you asked! It’s the Transonic HD03 Hemodialysis Monitor. It’s a small, blue-and-white bundle of clinical assistance. The HD03 provides fast, accurate measurements of access flow, recirculation, and delivered flow, giving clinicians a glimpse into the future of their patient’s vascular access health, and thereby, helping them avoid emergent procedures, or worse.

Diabetes has a long, storied, and unfortunate history. But maybe with enough foresight (like the HD03 provides) and enough evolution (like the Smart Boot provides), we can eventually make the history of diabetes exactly that:

History.

Click here to take the next step in your hemodialysis patient care.

Thanks for reading,

               Transonic Systems, Inc.

                              The Measure of Better Results

References:

1. Diabetes - Wikipedia
2. The Amputation Alternative: Defender Introduces Innovative Smart Boot™ Amidst Rising Diabetes Epidemic (usatoday.com)
3. Reference: Kosmadakis G, et al. “Hemodialysis access flow measurement: Comparison of ultrasound dilution and ultrafiltration method on NIKKISO DBB-EXA™ dialysis machine.” Journal of Vascular Access 2024, Vol 25(5) pg 1501-1507.