Article Text
Abstract
A British Paediatric Association Surveillance Unit* study of neonatal diabetes determined a national incidence of 1 in 400 000 live births. Additional cases of transient neonatal diabetes were collected retrospectively. Most cases were of low birthweight at term: none had evidence of an autoimmune aetiopathogenesis. The median requirement for exogenous insulin treatment was three months.
A significant number of cases developed type 2 diabetes in later life. Three of the 11 cases were found to have paternal uniparental isodisomy of chromosome 6. A further patient carried an unbalanced duplication of 6q 22-23, inherited from the father, which localised a potentially imprinted gene for diabetes to this region.
The fact that low birthweight predisposes to type 2 diabetes in later life is well established, but a genetic defect that may relate both to intrauterine growth failure and the development of type 2 diabetes in later life has now been identified.
- neonatal diabetes
- uniparental isodisomy
- chromosome 6
- type 2 diabetes.