[Insulin-dependent diabetes with acute onset. Remissions induced by early temporary blood glucose normalization]

Within 6 months of the acute onset of an insulin-dependent diabetes, remission of insulin-dependence was attempted in 30 hospital patients by strict control of glycaemia obtained in a few days with intravenous infusions of insulin, using a macropump. This was followed by an oral antidiabetic treatment, and the patients were considered in remission when metabolic control was achieved. By this method remission of insulin-dependence was obtained in 90% of the patients; it lasted for more than 1 year on average, and its degree seemed to depend on the time elapsed between the clinical onset of the disease and the beginning of the intravenous treatment but also, to a lesser extent, on the residual secretory capacity of the pancreas when this treatment was instituted. Thus, an intensive metabolic control increases the effectiveness of an oral treatment as regards both number of patients improved and duration of remission. When administered alone at the onset of the disease the oral treatment is only effective in about 30% of the cases.