Effect of intensive insulin treatment on linear growth in the young diabetic patient.

Although impaired growth is a well-recognized complication of uncontrolled diabetes, it has not been established whether less severe metabolic derangements commonly seen with conventional treatment adversely affected growth potential. To examine this question, growth velocity was measured in nine type 1 diabetic patients (age 14 +/- 3 years) before and after six months of intensive insulin treatment either with the insulin pump or with multiple injections, which lowered mean plasma glucose concentration from 270 +/- 96 to 105 +/- 55 mg/dl and total glycosylated hemoglobin from 12.4 +/- 3.0 to 8.4 +/- 1.5% (mean +/- SD). During conventional treatment, growth velocity (5.3 +/- 2.2 cm/year) was within the range of normal despite elevations in plasma glucose concentrations. However, growth velocity increased sharply during intensive treatment (to 9.4 +/- 3.9 cm/year, P less than 0.005), reaching values in excess of normal in seven patients. The increase in growth velocity observed during intensive treatment was associated with a twofold rise in plasma somatomedin-C values. Skeletal maturation, previously normal or slightly delayed, did not advance excessively. These data indicate that the metabolic changes accompanying intensive treatment may enhance growth in diabetic children, even in those with apparently normal growth velocity during conventional therapy.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in children with diabetes mellitus.

Seven children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus were found to have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; six of these children had the polyarticular form of the disease. All six had positive serology (rheumatoid factor and/or antinuclear antibody) and clinical or serologic evidence of autoimmune diseases usually ascribed to the thyrogastric cluster. Five expressed HLA antigens associated with increased risk for both diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis in adults. Evidence of B cell hyperactivity and impaired T cell response was found in some, but immunoregulatory function was normal in all. The association of these two diseases may be the result of factors other than chance alone, and may be more common than previously suspected.