Abstract
It is well known that diabetes mellitus is more common in acromegalic patient than in the general population. Kozak (1971) reports on an incidence of diabetes of the patients among his collected series of 823 cases of acromegaly. The question then arises as to why only some of acromegalic subjects develop diabetes. This problem, however, still remains conflicting.
This paper reports a case of acute onset and dramatical remission of young diabetic with acromegaly. A woman, aged 17 years at onset of diabetes in November, 1972, was first seen at our clinic when in diabetic pre-come. The partial operation was performed under the diagnosis of the pituitary adenoma and irradiation (4670 rad.) was given in August, 1972. Subsequently, over a period of operation and irradiation, thirst, polyuria and glucosuria occured. She required 80 units of regular insulin daily at maximum. In three months with insulin treatment, it resulted surprisingly in satisfactory control without requirement of insulin. Good diabetic control over a year is maintained without insulin administrations.
The changes of glucose, free fatty acid, lactate, pyruvate, ketone body, IRI and HGH in serum were observed all over the progress of onset and remission of diabetes in this case. The possibility that insulin and growth hormone play a regulatory role in energy homeostasis is suggested by the observation that the occurrence of diabetes, obesity, hypoglycemia or metabolic disorders depend on the interrelationship between metabolites and hormones.
