Abstract
Accelerated growth at adolescence may be partly responsible for the increased insulin requirements often seen in diabeticchildren at this time. We have studied growth velocity (ΔHt) in diabetic girls (diagnosed>2 years) who were either pre-adolescent (PA), intrapubertal (IP) (Tanner Stage II or more) and pre-menarcheal or post-Menarcheal (PM) and related this to insulin dose and diabetic control. Overall, there was an inverse relationship between glycated haemoglobin A1 (HbA1) and insulin dose (ID) (u/kg/d) (r -0.38 = p 0.01) and the slope of this regression allowed calculation of an index of insulin resistance (IIR) for each patient. (Relative theoretical insulin dose required to achieve HbA1 = 10%. )
Diabetic control worsened as puberty progressed and IIR increased despite the expected slowing of growth in late puberty. There was no significant relationship between ΔHt and IIR. These results suggest that accelerated growth plays a relatively small part in determining increased insulin requirements at adolescence and longitudinal studies in individual children are required to determine it more precisely.
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Allgrove, J. THE EFFECT OF GROWTH AT ADOLESCENCE ON INCREASED INSULIN REQUIREMENTS OF DIABETICS. Pediatr Res 23, 136 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198801000-00209
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198801000-00209
