Juvenile Diabetes
Diagnosing Juvenile Diabetes
Juvenile diabetes is popularly known as Type
1 diabetes. Other names for it are Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus
(IDDM). This type of diabetes is called juvenile diabetes, because it is
usually first diagnosed in children, teenagers, or young adults. Various
tests are used to diagnoses juvenile diabetes. Some of them are as below:
Urine sugar test: Urine contains different substances for
different types of diseases. Urinalysis in diabetes shows glucose and
ketone bodies in the urine. In the test, the urine is tested for
chemical composition including sugar. Excessive sugar in urine means
that the person in question has diabetes.
There are several types of urine tests available:
1) Fasting urine test
2) Random urine test
3) Mid-stream urine test
4) 24-hour urine test
Fasting plasma glucose test: This test is used widely to measure
your blood glucose level after 8 hours have passed without eating. It is
the preferred test as it is more convenient and more reliable when done
in the morning. Pre-diabetes can also be measured by this test. If the
fasting glucose level is 126mg/dL or above, you have juvenile diabetes.
Random
plasma glucose test: The random glucose test can be done without
taking in to account the diet factor unlike fasting glucose test. This
random glucose test, along with an assessment of symptoms, is used to
diagnose diabetes but it can not be used to diagnoses
prediabetes.
After diagnosis that
a person has diabetes, the short term goals of treatment are to cure
diabetic ketoacidosis (also called DKA) and high blood glucose levels.
Because of the sudden onset and severity of symptoms in juvenile
diabetes, treatment for newly diagnosed people may involve
hospitalization.
The long-term goals usually
aim towards increasing life span, reducing symptoms, and resisting
diabetes-related complications such as blindness, kidney failure, and
amputation of limbs.
All these aims can be fulfilled through
education, insulin use, meal planning and weight control, exercise and
careful self-testing of blood glucose levels among others.