Childhood and adolescent diabetes mellitus in Arabs residing in the United Arab Emirates

In 9 years (1990-1998), 40 Arab patients between the ages of 0 and 18 years had newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus (DM) at the Al-Ain hospital, United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this cohort, 35 patients had Type 1 DM while the remaining five patients had features of early onset Type 2 DM. For Type 1 DM patients, the mean age at diagnosis of was 9.2+/-4.1 years. At presentation, their mean plasma glucose was 27.6+/-11/mmol with 28 (80%) patients having diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), both being much higher than generally reported in the West. The mean insulin requirement increased from 0.84+/-0.27 U/kg per 24 h (0-9-year group) to 1.02+/-0.33 U/kg per 24 h (10-18-year group), P=0.055. The home glucose monitoring and the glycaemic control of these Type 1 DM patients were sub-optimal with 28% of patients having recurrence of DKA. Among the Type 2 DM patients, four (80%) were obese with a positive family history of Type 2 DM. All of them initially responded to diet and oral hypoglycaemic drugs. Public education about DM in childhood and prevention of adolescent obesity remain major public health challenges in the UAE.

Gentamicin nephrotoxicity in the rat: influence of age and diabetes mellitus

1. This work examines the influence of age on some nephrotoxic signs of gentamicin in normal and diabetic rats (aged 1 and 24 months). 2. Gentamicin (80 mg-1 kg-1 day for 6 days, intramuscularly) produced the typical pattern of nephrotoxicity; significantly increasing the plasma concentrations of creatinine and urea, and the urinary excretion of protein, copper and zinc and significantly reducing creatinine clearance and cortical alkaline phosphatase activity. The antibiotic produced a marked damage in the proximal renal tubules. Nearly all of these effects were more marked in the old than in the young rats. Cortical gentamicin concentration in the young was about 67% of that in the old. 3. Streptozotocin-induced diabetes significantly ameliorated the signs of nephrotoxicity of gentamicin in young rats. In old rats, diabetes had significantly less protective effect on the gentamicin-induced nephrotoxic signs than in the young rats. Gentamicin nephrotoxicity in diabetic old rats induced mortality in about a third of the animals used, whereas no mortality was seen in young diabetic rats treated with gentamicin.