Documented symptomatic hypoglycaemia in children and adolescents using multiple daily insulin injection therapy

✍ Scribed by Tupola, S.; Rajantie, J.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 43 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0742-3071
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9136(199806)15:6<492::aid-dia600>3.0.co;2-6

✦ Synopsis

Symptomatic episodes of documented hypoglycaemia were characterized with the aid of a 3-month diary in a single-centre, unselected group of 161 children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes mellitus, treated mainly (81 %) with multiple-dose insulin therapy. Patients and families were asked to write in the diary all the symptomatic episodes in which blood glucose concentration proved to be р3 mmol l -1 before treatment. Of the patients, 83 (52 %) had a total of 287 hypoglycaemic episodes (0.6 attack per month per patient). The majority of the attacks, 221 (77 %), were mild (patients у6 years able to treat themselves). Only two attacks were severe, resulting in coma and/or convulsion. The most common dominant symptoms were weakness (29 %), tremor (20 %), hunger (14 %), and drowsiness (12 %). Of all the dominant symptoms, 39 % were classified as autonomic, 20 % neuroglycopenic, and 41 % non-specific. In children under 6 years, autonomic symptoms were less common than in adolescents 15 years or over (34 % vs 57 %, p = 0.01). In conclusion, the incidence of documented symptomatic hypoglycaemia was low. The symptoms were more often neuroglycopenic or non-specific than autonomic, especially in young children.