Predictive factors of partial remission in 117 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes

Abstract

Introduction /objectives - Partial remission, in type 1 diabetes, has beneficial effects on acute and chronic complications. The aim of the study was to describe partial remission and identify its predictive factors in a cohort of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Methods - Children and adolescents under 15 years, admitted between June 2013 and July 2014, having started insulin treatment within a month before admission were studied. Results - One hundred and seventeen new consecutive cases were analyzed. At admission, sex ratio was 0.86, age was 8.2 ± 4.3 years (27% <5 years, 36% aged 5-9 and 37% 10-14). Inaugural ketoacidosis was present in 30 children (26%). Partial remission (insulin less than 0.5 UI/Kg/day and HbA1c ≤ 7.5%) was obtained in 21 children (17.95% of cases) with an average duration of 5.2 ± 4.2 months (min. 3-max. 15). The remission was significantly more frequent in children who had no ketoacidosis at diagnosis (p <0.01), who didn’t have siblings with T1DM (p <0.05) and in girls (p <0.02). There was no significant correlation with HbA1c levels at admission, level of maternal education or occupation and geographic origin. Conclusions - Ketoacidosis at diabetes onset is a negative predictive factor of partial remission. The absence of type 1 diabetes in siblings and female gender are predictive factors of partial remission specific to our work environment.

Keywords

• Type 1 diabetes
• partial remission
• honey moon
• child
• HbA1c