[Clinical diagnosis of childhood insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Hungarian Epidemiological Group for Childhood Diabetes].

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical presentation and severity of the disease at onset in childhood during 1994. Based on the prospective national incidence registry, data were collected (using a modified version of the EURODIAB ACE questionnaire) from all diabetic children diagnosed during a full calendar year (1994). The ascertainment was 91%. Polyuria, polydipsia and weight loss were the most frequent clinical symptoms, but fatigue, abdominal pain and personality changes were also often reported. Almost one quarter of the children presented with diabetic ketoacidosis. There was no correlation between age, duration of symptoms, blood glucose levels and the severity of disease. The unacceptably high incidence of presentation ketoacidosis called for an urgent improvement of the diagnostic acumen of the physicians dealing with children.