December 7, 2007
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Emporia, Kansas, USA:
My daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age two. My three-year-old nephew exhibits some signs, such as drinking a lot, fatigue, mood swings and is withdrawn around meals. My sister took him to a family physician who thought he might be hypoglycemic. She did a two hour fasting glucose test. His fasting blood sugar was 97 mg/dl [5.4 mmol/L] and his two hour reading was 126 mg/dl [7.0 mmol/L]. Before the test, the physicians told us that normal for his age was 60 mg/dl [3.3 mmol/L] to 110 mg/dl [6.1 mmol/L] and that anything outside that was cause for concern. After the 126 mg/dl [7.0 mmol/L] reading, the physician said he was okay and that there was nothing to be concerned about. We were confused. My sister is limiting his sugar intake, which is helping him some, but we are concerned about him. Should she seek a second opinion?
Answer:
All the sugar levels, either fasting and after the sugar load, are perfect. The only thing you might want to ask her doctor to check are autoantibodies (GADA and IA2) and, if positive, to add genetic testing. These might give a better estimate of future risk for type 1 diabetes especially if the genetic turns out to be protective for the disease (dominant effect). The clinical findings you described might be due to many different reasons but not to diabetes for sure, at least for now.
MS
