[Blood glucose and immunoreactive insulin in children with diabetic siblings and diabetic mothers (author's transl)].

The study was designed to examine the behaviour of blood glucose (BG), serum immunoreactive insulin (IRI) and of the insulinogenic index after an oral glucose load in children with a history of familial diabetes mellitus (D.m). Oral glucose tolerance tests (50 g/m2) were performed both without (OGTT) and after pretreatment with 2 times 5 mg Prednisolon within 12 hrs (CGTT) in 25 children with diabetic siblings (group I) and in 13 children with diabetic mothers (group II). Subjects fitting the criteria for An normal OGTT as established by Fajans and Conn and 5 children with clinical D.m. served as controls. Seventeen children of group I had a normal OGTT, 8 (32%) presented with either latent (N = 4) or asymptomatic (N =4) D.m. Six children (46%) with diabetic mothers (group II) had a normal OGTT, 7 (54%) presented with either latent (N = 4) or asymptomatic (N = 3) Dm. Children of ideal weight and with latent D.m. responded to an OGTT with an either normal or an elevated insulin release, and showed during the CGTT a distinctly increased insulin release when compared with healthy subjects. Insulin secretion in children with asymptomatic D.m. was smaller both upon OGTT and CGTT than that of children with latent D.m. but not significantly different from that of healthy subjects. The insulinogenic index was maximal in healthy obese children, it was normal in latent and in asymptomatic, and lowest in clinical diabetics. In conclusion it appears that in children the initial stage of D.m. (i.e. latent and subclinical D.m.) is not necessarily linked to hypoinsulinemia.