ISPAD Clinical Practice Consensus Guideline: Diabetic ketoacidosis in the time of COVID-19 and resource-limited settings-role of subcutaneous insulin.

The International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes Clinical Practice Consensus Guideline 2018 for management of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and the hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state provide comprehensive guidance for management of DKA in young people. Intravenous (IV) infusion of insulin remains the treatment of choice for treating DKA; however, the policy of many hospitals around the world requires admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) for IV insulin infusion. During the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic or other settings where intensive care resources are limited, ICU services may need to be prioritized or may not be appropriate due to risk of transmission of infection to young people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The aim of this guideline, which should be used in conjunction with the ISPAD 2018 guidelines, is to ensure that young individuals with DKA receive management according to best evidence in the context of limited ICU resources. Specifically, this guideline summarizes evidence for the role of subcutaneous insulin in treatment of uncomplicated mild to moderate DKA in young people and may be implemented if administration of IV insulin is not an option.

[Harry Dorchy and pediatric diabetology]. / Harry Dorchy et la diabétologie pédiatrique.

"Monsieur Le Professor Harry Dorchy is retiring". He has had a brilliant 40 year career since receiving his medical degree from the Free University of Brussels in 1969 and his PhD--entitled " Contribution a l'etude du diabète de l'enfant et de l'adolescent "--in 1981 from the same illustrious university. He had the great fortune to connect with his mentor, Professor Helmut Jean Loeb, and for many years, the two of them cared for young people with diabetes in Brussels and worked closely to establish a remarkable legacy of clinical care, research and innovative thinking about how young children in Belgium--in fact, around the world--, ought to be considered and treated. At the moment of his official retirement, he has an active patient census of 792 patients, 442 under the age of 18 years, at the Queen Fabiola University Children's Hospital in Brussels. As a member of the Hvidoere International Study Group on Childhood Diabetes, Dr Dorchy's patients have the great honor of being the most successful study cohort: those with the lowest (ie. best) levels of hemoglobin A1c. And they do so without excessive hypoglycemia! Dr Dorchy has had 490 publications as an author in his scientific career, 335 as first author. Dr Dorchy's research has complemented his superb work as a clinician : screening for subclinical complications, normal and flexible diet, physical activity, glycemic control and insulin treatment, quality of life, genetics and immunology, specific types of diabetes, etc. Since 1996, with his pediatric diabetologist comrade, Professor Stuart Brink from Boston, he has traveled annually to Romania to help organize, administer and teach at an annual ISPAD-Timisoara Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes Post-Graduate Course with Professor Viorel Serban.

Education and multidisciplinary team approach in childhood diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is one of the most frequent chronic diseases in childhood. As in other chronic diseases (asthma, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, epilepsy) children and their families become the focus of self-treatment and the directors of their own care; thus, the health care team should be the guides who set the stage, provided advice and oversight and helped to re-focus efforts when goals were not being met all centered around the patient and family. Rather than the diabetes health care team being the only ones to initiate treatment, patient and parents have to be empowered to analyze their own data, identify patterns, problem solve with food and activity and do so based upon actual blood glucose results. Home record keeping and memory meters facilitate such analysis just as the algorithms currently in use attempt to mimic the basalbolus pattern of endogenous insulin secretion previously provided by a working pancreas. In the past, often disaster control was the modus operandi for the person with diabetes. Parents and health care providers were involved with criticism and accusations about "cheating" rather than learning how better to supervise and provide oversight. Nowadays, better knowledge of physiopathology of diabetes, availability of new insulins and devices, as well as different education of health providers pave the way for ameliorating self-care in children and adolescents with diabetes, with the aim of improving metabolic control and quality of life of children and their family, with the ultimate aim of preventing macrovascular and microvascular complications.

Education and multidisciplinary team care concepts for pediatric and adolescent diabetes mellitus.

The DCCT scientifically established the basis for optimizing blood glucose control in type 1 diabetes mellitus around the world using a multidisciplinary team approach and patient-centered adjustments of food and insulin based upon blood glucose data generated by the patient. Pediatric diabetologists no longer believe that it is prudent to allow higher blood glucose levels in prepubertal children but much educational emphasis must be placed upon minimizing serious episodes of hypoglycemia. Individualized treatment should be determined by a close working relationship between highly trained diabetes nurses, educators and dieticians with the patient as the focus of self-care decisions, and a pediatric diabetologist ideally setting the philosophical and medical goals. Rather than the diabetes health care team being the only ones to initiate treatment, patient and parents should be empowered to analyze their own data, identify patterns, solve problems with food and activity, and do so based upon actual blood glucose results. This empowerment paradigm helps decrease care frustrations and improve treatment outcomes. Survival education followed by in-depth problem solving education and organized follow-up education are all needed steps for successful diabetes management. Identification of psychosocial barriers and energy diverting behavioral and family issues just as knowledge about learning styles play key roles in this process. Dogma should be avoided. More physiological utilization of insulin analogs, greater insulin dosing flexibility with a multidose insulin regimen coupled with adaptation of insulin to food and activity, should allow maximum benefit. Four major types of learning styles are reviewed: concrete sequential learners, abstract sequential learners, abstract random learners and concrete random learners. Health Belief Models, Locus of Control constructs, and Self-Efficacy models all provide sophisticated ways to help identify and overcome learning and self-care barriers. Parental, child, adolescent and young adult responsibility for care also needs to be addressed and placed in the context of family functioning and glycemic goals. Age and developmental stages as well as parental and societal roles play important roles in the care needed to live well with a chronic illness. The role of the health care professionals who are part of the diabetes care team involves not only setting the stage and providing guidance but also supervising appropriate short- as well as long-term complications monitoring for early detection and treatment of microangiopathy. Applying not only telephone but also fax, e-mail and computers in modern diabetes care should facilitate applications of these psychological, educational and medical models to improve short-term and long-term diabetes treatment outcomes.