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Diabetes Mellitus in Friedreich's Ataxia
Author(s) -
THORÉN CLAES
Publication year - 1962
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1962.tb08680.x
Subject(s) - medicine , diabetes mellitus , ataxia , etiology , prediabetes , endocrinology , pediatrics , type 2 diabetes , psychiatry
Summary In a clinical study of Friedreich's ataxia diabetes mellitus was found in nine of 50 typical cases. The mean age of the diabetes onset was 21.9 years and the clinical type was a severe ketosis‐prone diabetes. In 18 non‐diabetics an intravenous glucose tolerance test was performed. One of these cases was disclosed to be a prediabetes. The mean rate of glucose disappearance was normal. Serum lipid analysis showed a slight elevation in non‐diabetics and a higher in diabetics. The frequency of diabetes mellitus, including the prediabetic case, was 20%. Owing to the low age of the cases and as the glucose tolerance test was performed only in about half of the non‐diabetics, this figure was estimated to be lower than the total frequency in Friedreich's ataxia. A brief survey of the literature is given, and the aetiology of diabetes mellitus in Friedreich's ataxia is discussed. The marked frequency of a known heredity to diabetes in the diabetic cases lends support to the hypthesis of a genetic aetiology. The possibility of an interplay between the defective genes of the two diseases is assumed. The pronouncedly vegetative syndrome occurring in Friedreich's ataxia suggests the possibility of a central nervous factor, though this can hardly be a primary cause of the diabetes.