Abstract
After the informed consent by parents and children we have studied 15 children referred to our clinic because of suspected ketotic hypoglycemia. The patients were investigated according to a program designed to test several hypotheses - old and newpostulated to explain the ethiology of ketotic hypoglycemia. The plasma levels of glucose,FFA,glycerol,β-HBA, alanine,cortisol and insulin as well as the urinary excretion of nitrogen, 3-methylhistidine and cathecolamines and an i.v. glucose tolerance test were measured before and after a classical ketogenic provocation test. Out of the 15 children 6 will fill the criteria of ketotic hypoglycemia at the time of the study. The most remarkable finding in these 6 children in contrast to the other children studied was that they did not decrease their peripheral glucose utilization(measured as Kg) during starvation. These 6 children seemed to be more "advanced" in their adaptation to ketogenic diet in all other parameters studied. The children with ketotic hypoglycemia did not differ from the other children in plasma level of cortisol or urinary excretion of nitrogen,urea, 3-methyl-histidine and catechalamines. - We favour the concept that the children with ketotic hypoglycemia represent the tail of the gaussian curve in the normal physiological development of the adaptation to starvation.
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Dahlquist, G., Gentz, J., Hagenfeldt, L. et al. Ketotic hypoglycemia-a clinical trial of several unifying ethiological hypotheses: 14. Pediatr Res 14, 168 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198002000-00041
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198002000-00041
