Hypoglycemia (redirected from juvenile hypoglycemia)

hypoglycemia: see diabetes.

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hypoglycemia

Below-normal levels of blood glucose, quickly reversed by administration of oral or intravenous glucose. Even brief episodes can produce severe brain dysfunction. Fasting hypoglycemia can be life-threatening; it occurs most often in patients with diabetes mellitus who mistime insulin therapy or miss meals. It also results from insulin-producing tumours, starvation, or metabolic disorders. Reactive hypoglycemia occurs when the body produces too much insulin in response to sugar intake. Symptoms range from irritability to confusion and seizures, leading to coma and death in severe cases.

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hypoglycemia [¦hī·pō‚glī′sē·mē·ə]

(medicine)

Condition caused by low levels of sugar in the blood.

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Hypoglycemia 

a decrease in the sugar content of the blood to below 80-70 mg percent.

Hypoglycemia is found in healthy persons during heightened muscular activity as a result of the considerable expenditure of glucose as an energy source when the body’s energy loss is not replenished with readily assimilable carbohydrates. Hypoglycemia sometimes arises after heavy intake of carbohydrates as a result of the reflex secretion by the pancreas of an excessive amount of insulin. The condition is observed in certain diseases of the insular apparatus of the pancreas, the hypothalamic region of the brain, the other endocrine glands, or the liver (disruption of the liver’s function as the principal glycogen depot), as well as in insulin overdose (hypoglycemic shock). In hypoglycemic shock, after a short period of central nervous system excitation, a condition develops that is accompanied by weakness, drowsiness, hunger, and psychic disturbances. Trembling, loss of consciousness, and convulsions may set in when sugar content is lowered to 40 percent or less. The condition is eliminated by administering glucose. Hypoglycemic or insulin shock may be induced artificially for the treatment of certain diseases.

REFERENCES

Genes, S. G. Gipoglikemiia: Gipoglikemiche skii simptomokompleks. Moscow, 1970. (Bibliography, pp. 224-35.)