Romanian Journal of Medical Practice (Dec 2020)

Major variations in blood glucose levels in pediatric patients with type 1 diabetes

  • Adriana COSMESCU,
  • Carmen OLTEAN,
  • Agnes BACUSCA,
  • Livia PETROAIE,
  • Ana-Maria SLANINA,
  • Antoneta Dacia PETROAIE

DOI
https://doi.org/10.37897/RJMP.2020.4.14
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 4
pp. 441 – 445

Abstract

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Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in children and adolescents, with an increasing incidence globally. Major variations in serum glucose cause severe ketoacidosis and hypoglycemia, acute metabolic complications of the disease. We performed a retrospective study on a group of 119 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in whom only the cases with ketoacidosis and severe hypoglycemia that required emergency hospitalization were quantified. At the same time, we identified the causes and determinants of these acute complications. According to the case study, 28.6% of patients (34 cases) presented severe hypoglycemia, the most common causes of hypoglycemia being intense physical activity without additional carbohydrate intake, delayed carbohydrate intake, and excess insulin. 15.3% of patients (18 cases) had ketoacidosis, of which 55.55% were recurrent ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis has been detected in patients with poor glycemic balance and poor treatment compliance by not following a diet and skipping insulin doses. Among the additional risk fac-tors, we identified age over 13 years and the age of diabetes greater than 5 years, for both acute complications.

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