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The emerging landscape of childhood diabetes: unraveling the diagnosis

Shazhan Amed & Jill Hamilton

The diagnosis of diabetes in children has become increasingly complex with the emergence of increased rates of childhood-onset Type 2, monogenic and medication-induced diabetes. Differentiating between different types of childhood diabetes is challenging, requiring a basic understanding of pathophysiology of various diabetes types and their associated clinical risk factors. Overlapping clinical features and conflicting findings on laboratory investigations sometimes complicate the picture. The clinician must pay careful attention to the presence or absence of typical risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, family history of diabetes, laboratory evidence of endogenous insulin production or pancreatic autoimmunity, and the natural progression of the disease, in order to make an accurate diagnosis and choose the most appropriate and effective treatment regimen.