Research
Doctoral Dissertation on Hypoglycemia
Brain damage from low blood sugar can be avoided in newborns with the rare disease "congenital hyperinsulinism," but difficulties in diagnosing the condition can delay proper treatment.
In a new doctoral dissertation by Professor Henrik Christesen from the Hans Christian Andersen Children's Department at Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark, this and other important aspects of the disease are demonstrated.
Symptoms of low blood sugar can be entirely absent, partly due to a decreased production of stress hormones. Even slightly elevated levels of insulin in the blood can be critical, but demonstrating this requires a sensitive analytical method. The severity at the onset of the disease and the identification of a disease-causing mutation cannot predict whether the disease will be persistent or resolve on its own.
A localized change in the pancreas can be predicted by a rapid genetic analysis, and the local focus can be precisely identified using a special PET/CT scan, supplemented with ultrasound during surgery, allowing for patients to be cured with precise surgery.
Other severe types of the disease cannot be cured with surgery without a very high risk of developing diabetes. A rare variant of the disease has been mimicked in a newly designed medication for type 2 diabetes, where higher insulin levels are desirable. Several syndrome diseases can have accompanying hyperinsulinism to a very variable degree and duration.
Meet the researcher
Henrik Christesen is a professor at the Department of Clinical Research at SDU and H. C. Andersen Children's Department, OUH.
Doctoral dissertation
Professor, PhD, and pediatrician Henrik Thybo Christesen will defend his doctoral dissertation on Progress in Diagnosis and Treatment of Congenital Hyperinsulinism on June 14th in the SUND building, University of Southern Denmark. The dissertation is based on 17 published articles.