Clinical Profile of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in Saudi Children: a Hospital Based Study

Objective: To determine the clinical characteristics of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in children under15 years of age. Cross sectional study conducted at Aseer Central Hospital Abha, South-western Saudi Arabia from June 2011 – May 2015. Patients and Methods: Study included 141 Saudi children, 15 years old with newly diagnosed T1DM. The demographic and laboratory data were collected from file records. The patients were divided into youn-ger ( 5 yr), middle (5 – 10 yr) and older ( 10 – 15 yr) 1 Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Lahore 2 Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Lahore 3 Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore 4 Demonstrator, Department of Paediatrics College of Medicine King Khalid University, Abha, KSA 5 Medical Intern, College of Medicine King Khalid University, Abha KSA 6 Medical Intern, College of Medicine King Khalid University, Abha KSA 7 Professor, Department of Medicine Azra Naheed Medical College, Superior University, Lahore 8 Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics Gynecology, Azra Naheed Medical College, Superior University, Lahore Date of Submission: 4-7-2016 Date of Acceptance for Publication: 13-8-2016 Conflict of Interest: None Funding Source: None Contribution All Authors have contributed in Study Design, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Data Interpretation, Manuscript Writing and Appr-oval. age groups. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 16. Results: Age of 141 children at onset of T1DM (mean ± SD) was 6.5 ± 3.2 years and majority 62 (44%) belonged to middle age group. Older 43 (30.5%) age group had female predominance (2:1) (p 0.0001). Diabetic keto-acidosis (DKA) (39%), obesity (11%) and male predominance (2.6:1) were found in younger 36 (25.5%) age group (p 0.0001). Family history (F/Hx) of T1DM 29 (20.6%) and HbA1c (10.36 ± 1.8%) successively increased with advancing age of patients. Main presenting symptoms like polyuria (96%), polydipsia (85%), weight loss (62%), nocturia (47%), polyphagia (28%) and DKA (22%),were significantly more frequent in children with F/Hx of T1DM (p 0.0001). Duration of symp-toms at first presentation was 17.3 ± 10.7 days and daily insulin requirement was found 0.82 ± 0.2 units/ Kg. Conclusion: Polyuria, polydipsia, weight loss, noctu-ria and polyphagia were the main presenting symptoms and more frequent in middle age group children especially having F/Hx of T1DM. Under five years, obese and male children were found at higher risk for DKA development. Girls usually present late in ado-lescent age.