Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) is now becoming the standard of care for children and young people with diabetes (CYPD). Due to a lack of validated education programmes, we created ‘The CGM Academy’ delivering evidence-based structured education. The results of the first 50 CYPD graduating from the academy demonstrated statistically significant improvement in time in range (TIR, 3.9-10.0 mmol/l) by 8.3% (P<0.001) and HbA1c by 3.8 mmol/mol...

Introduction: The NPDA presents data on management, treatment, and complications for all diabetes units in the country. This acts as a driver for quality improvement and aims to improve standards of diabetes care. The 2019 report identified a relatively high proportion of children with hypertension locally. An audit aimed to identify the proportion of local diabetes patients with ‘hypertension’ or ‘pre-hypertension’, and their clinical identification. The s...

Background: HbA1c is an important indicator of long-term glycaemic control in CYP with established diabetes mellitus (DM). The WHO recommends that diagnosis of DM requires measurement of blood glucose, and that HbA1c is not validated as a diagnostic test in CYP. NICE guidance recommends any child with suspected Type 1 DM should have a POC BG test and same day referral to secondary care. Requesting HbA1c in primary care may delay diagnosis of Type 1 DM, leading to potentially l...

Background: Adolescence is a challenging time for people with type 1 diabetes (T1DM), associated with worsening glycaemia and disengagement with care. Educational interventions often focus on imparting diabetes-specific skills rather than attending to some of the broader psychosocial challenges young people commonly experience. To address this, we codesigned a psychosocially modelled programme of diabetes education, named ‘Youth Empowerment Skills’ (YES), with young ...

Introduction: Artificial pancreas systems (APS) have improved glycaemic control in adult and paediatric patients in clinical trials as part of routine clinical careAim and objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of artificial pancreas system in routine clinical care on glycaemic control over a period of three to six months. Changes in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), time in range (TIR, 3.9-10 mmol/l) and time below range (TBR, <3.9 mmol/l) were asses...

Diabetes mellitus education for children, young people and their families has become more complex in recent years, requiring a solid knowledge of mathematics, problem solving and ongoing adjustments as the child grows. The education at time of diagnosis can be overwhelming for many parents who are coming to terms with this lifelong condition. But we, as diabetes teams also expect them to take on new and alien tasks, not only blood glucose testing and injecting insulin, but als...

Introduction: At the onset of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), children often experience a partial remission which is characterized by decreased insulin requirements. Usually, some exogenous insulin is still needed during this honeymoon phase. We present cases of 2 children with T1DM who had significantly extended periods where no exogenous insulin was required. Case 1: 12-year-old girl presented with fatigue and weight gain. HbA1c in primary care was 51 mmol/mol. BMI was +3 <...

In Northern Ireland the annual marching season starts around April/May and can last until the end of September. This is a time when those children and young people with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus who are involved in parades, need advice from the diabetes team regarding the variations in their activity levels. This can be a very delicate subject within the cultural setting, revealing their allegiance for one side of the community or the other and can be very sensitive. As a resul...