Role of glucose variability on linear growth in children with type 1 diabetes

Abstract

Objective: Linear growth is impaired in children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and poor metabolic control. A good metabolic control is a key therapeutic goal to prevent vascular complications and also to ensure appropriate anthropometric development during childhood. In this study, we aimed to identify and characterize the effects of glycemic variability on linear growth in children with T1D. Methods: Data from 144 prepubertal children with T1D were evaluated. Anthropometric measurements (weight, weight-SDS, height, height-SDS, BMI, BMI-SDS) were collected and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was measured at admission and every 4 months over a 2-year period. Glycemic variability indexes (glycemic co efficient of variation (CV), glycemic CV percentage (CV%), and the product between HbA1c-mea n and HbA1c-SDS/100 (M*SDS-HbA1c/100)) were calculated. According to height-SDS changes after 2 years of follow-up, the study population was divided into three tertile groups and differences across groups were investigated for variables of int erest. Results: The three groups were similar in terms of age, gender, and follow-up period. After 2 years, all prepubertal children showed a signifi cant positive trend of anthropometric data. Across the three tertile groups, HbA1c-SDS , CV, CV%, and M*SDSHbA1c significantly decreased from the first to the third tertile of height-SDS. During follow-up, children with lower Δheight-SDS values reported high er values of HbA1c-SDS, CV, CV%, and M*SDS-HbA1c than subjects with higher linear growt h. Conclusions: Glycemic variability correlates with linear growth in children with T1D. Low glycemic variability indexes were reported in higher height-SDS tertiles. Δheight-SDS is inversely correlated with glycemic CV, CV%, and M*SDS-HbA1c.

Keywords

• type 1 diabetes
• growth
• glucose variability
• children