title: The role of genealogy and clinical family histories in documenting possible inheritance patterns for diabetes mellitus in the pre-insulin era: part 1. The clinical case of Josephine Imperato.
abstract: Establishing the role of heredity in type 2 diabetes mellitus (type 2 DM) is challenging. While type 2 DM frequently displays a pattern of familial aggregation, many other risk factors are responsible for the clinical expression of the disease. This paper reviews a number of the early twentieth-century studies of inheritance patterns for type 2 DM and presents in detail the history of Josephine Foniciello Imperato (Maria Giuseppa Foniciello) who died from the disease in New York City at the age of 52 years on 14 November 1921, ten months before commercial insulin became available.
authors.affiliation: State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA. pascal.imperato@downstate.edu
authors.forename: Pascal James
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Imperato
authors.forename: Gavin H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Imperato
mesh_terms: D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history; D005789:Genealogy and Heraldry; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000266:history* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007558:Italy; D008487:Medical History Taking; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin