Diabetes microvascular complications in prepubertal children.

These are the baseline findings of a group of 68 prepubertal children enrolled in a longitudinal study of the development of early diabetes microvascular complications prior to gonadarche. The median age of the children was 9.8 years, the median diabetes duration 3.6 years and the mean HbA1c 8.4%. Mild nonproliferative retinopathy was present in 6 of 67 (9%) children, assessed by 7-field stereoscopic fundus photography. Those with retinopathy had higher total cholesterol (p < 0.05) and lower DHEAS (p < 0.01). Albumin excretion rate (AER) was calculated as the mean of three overnight consecutive urine collections. AER > 7.5 micrograms/min was present in 5 of 64 (8%), and one boy had a mean AER > 15 micrograms/min. Those with AER > 7.5 micrograms/min had higher diastolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure percentiles (p < 0.05). Longitudinal study of this cohort will establish which factors in the prepubertal years are important for the development of diabetes microvascular complications.