[Diabetes type in families with children of diabetic mothers]

Within the framework of a long-term investigation of children of diabetic mothers the authors investigated the family-history of diabetes and its types on the side of the mother and father. The incidence of diabetes was related to the state of glucose tolerance in 155 grown-up children of diabetic mothers (106 mothers with insulin dependent diabetes--IDDM; 17 mothers with non-insulin dependent diabetes--NIDDM). In the family-history of mothers with both types of diabetes NIDDM predominated. IDDM which developed by the age of 20 years was recorded only in siblings and in children of 5.9% and 4.7% mothers with IDDM. In families with diabetic children the mild form of IDDM was found in mothers and in children, once in a father. Abnormal glucose tolerance in children of mothers with IDDM was present in 7%, while the family-history of the fathers was negative, in 36% in case of concurrent NIDDM of the fathers and in 15.8% in children of mothers with NIDDM. The results confirmed the heterogeneity of diabetes. They indicated that when evaluating the risk of the offspring of diabetic mothers it is essential to take into account the family-history of fathers and to define the type of diabetes, as between the types certain hitherto not elucidated relations exist.