[What glycemic control can be achieved in diabetic children and adolescents to avoid complications? Personal...

The principal aims of therapeutic management of the child, adolescent and adult with type 1 diabetes are to allow good quality of life and to avoid long-term complications by maintaining blood glucose concentrations close to the normal range and an HbA1c level under 7%. The number of daily insulin injections, 2 or > or =4 or pumps, by itself does not necessarily give better results, but the 4-injection regimen allows greater freedom, taking into account that the proper insulin adjustment is difficult before adolescence. Successful glycaemic control in young patients depends mainly on the quality and intensity of diabetes education. Any dogmatism must be avoided. Dietary recommendations issued over the last few years are the same for diabetic and nondiabetic individuals in order to avoid degenerative diseases. In the twice-daily injection regimen, the allocation of carbohydrates throughout the day is essential. Due to their pharmakokinetic characteristics, fast-acting and long-acting insulin analogues have specific indications in both the twice-daily injection regimen and the basal-bolus insulin therapy. They improve quality of life, without necessarily reducing HbA1c. In the two daily insulin injection regimen, fast-acting analogues are very useful to rapidly correct hyperglycaemia, to allow sleeping in and eating something sweet. In the basal-bolus regimen, long-acting analogues reduce nocturnal hypoglycaemias and improve fasting blood glucose. Clinical studies, conducted since the 1970s by our team, have demonstrated that screening for subclinical retinopathy (fluorescein angiography), neuropathy (conduction velocities), nephropathy (microalbuminuria), should be started at puberty and at least 3 years after the diagnosis of diabetes. The goal is to detect early abnormalities responsible for subclinical disorders that can be reversed by improved metabolic control, thus preventing the occurrence of irreversible potentially incapacitating lesions. This motivates both the patient and the doctor in order to obtain good HbAlc levels. The mean HbAlc levels of our diabetic children and adolescents are among the lowest in the review of literature and in the international comparisons by the Hvidøre Study Group on Childhood Diabetes.