Diabetes mellitus in a young man with Bloom's syndrome

Bloom's syndrome (BS) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder in which diabetes mellitus unusually frequently develops as a complication. We report on a 21-year-old Japanese male patient with BS who exhibited impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in the initial oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and had developed patterns of diabetes mellitus by the second OGTT at the 2-years-and-2-months follow-up. German and Passarge reported that the onset of diabetes in patients with BS was in late adolescence or early adulthood. Our results support the findings of German and Passarge. Therefore, when a person with BS reaches late adolescence or early adulthood, an OGTT is necessary to ascertain whether the patient has IGT or diabetes mellitus as a complication, regardless of whether or not diabetic signs such as glucosuria are present.