June 29, 2006
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from St. Johns, Michigan, USA:
My four year old daughter had a glucose test after a 12 hour fasting. Her initial blood sugar was 103 mg/dl [5.7 mmol/L]. She then drank a sugary drink provided by the doctor, waited two hours, and had a second blood sugar reading of 105 mg/dl [5.8 mmol/L]. Her doctor is very concerned over her initial reading of 103 mg/dl [5.7 mmol/L], but is confused over the second blood sugar. A week before her test, she had a sinus infection and was placed on Zithromax for five days. This was two days before her glucose test. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes run in my family. Two of my mom’s sisters had type 1.
Could the sinus infection or Zithromax had an effect on the results? She also had a finger prick test about a month before, one-half hour after drinking an orange drink from McDonald’s. Her blood sugar was 153 mg/dl [8.5 mmol/L].
Answer:
Sometimes you provide data that is confusing. I think the most important piece of information is the fact that at two hours after a glucose challenge, your daughter’s blood sugar was 105 mg/dl [5.8 mmol/L]. This is considered normal.
We see occasional sugars that we cannot explain in children. My best guess is your daughter may have had a dirty finger for the fasting check, but I may be wrong.
Regardless, it is impossible to diagnose diabetes with that GTT.
LD
