Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Hypoglycaemia is a common complication of diabetes which causes great anxiety in patients and their families. Asymptomatic hypoglycaemia can be debilitating, especially in young children. All patients who attend Children and Young People (CYP) Diabetes Clinic have their blood glucose tested. If hypoglycaemia is identified (Blood Glucose less than 4 mmol/l), the local hypoglycaemia hospital policy should be followed by staff to provide safe and effective treatment.

Aims: i) To record the number of children and young people in Diabetes Clinic who presented with hypoglycaemia over a six month period.

ii) To identify if the children and young people presenting with hypoglycaemia were symptomatic or asymptomatic.

iii) To ascertain if the local hospital hypoglycaemia policy was followed.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of patient attending the CYP Diabetes clinic records over 6 months period.

Results: During the six month period a total of 272 CYP attended Diabetes clinic. Of these 57 presented with hypoglycaemia (21%).

Majority of patients were on MDI (multiple daily injections) regime. There was no significant difference between the type of insulin regimen used and mean HbA1c, although those on BD (twice daily insulin regimen) have the highest mean HbA1c at 9.17%.

38% of CYP presenting with hypoglycaemia reported a complete lack of symptoms.

50% of CYP with measured severe hypoglycaemia and reported preserved hypoawareness, reported no symptoms in clinic. This suggests that modified hypoawareness can often go undetected by children and their responsible adults.

The local hospital hypoglycaemia protocol was rarely followed due to different reasons and requires revision to improve usefulness and suitability to meet both the clinical needs for appropriate hypoglycaemic treatment and acceptability for diabetes patients.