Hypoglycemia and decreased insulin requirement caused by malignant insulinoma in a type 1 diabetic patient: when the hoof beats are from a zebra, not a horse

Hilde K Gjelberg; Dag Hoem; Caroline S Verbeke; Johan Eide; John G Cooper; Anders Molven

doi:10.1002/ccr3.927

Hypoglycemia and decreased insulin requirement caused by malignant insulinoma in a type 1 diabetic patient: when the hoof beats are from a zebra, not a horse

Clin Case Rep. 2017 Apr 6;5(6):761-768. doi: 10.1002/ccr3.927. eCollection 2017 Jun.

Authors

Hilde K Gjelberg¹, Dag Hoem², Caroline S Verbeke^{3

4}, Johan Eide¹, John G Cooper⁵, Anders Molven^{1

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology Haukeland University Hospital Bergen Norway.
² Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery Haukeland University Hospital Bergen Norway.
³ Institute of Clinical Medicine University of Oslo Oslo Norway.
⁴ Department of Pathology Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet Oslo Norway.
⁵ Department of Medicine Stavanger University Hospital Stavanger Norway.
⁶ Gade Laboratory for Pathology Department of Clinical Medicine University of Bergen Bergen Norway.
⁷ KG Jebsen Center for Diabetes Research Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry University of Bergen Bergen Norway.

Abstract

Insulinomas are uncommon tumors, and in patients with diabetes mellitus they are extremely rare. We describe a patient with type 1 diabetes who developed malignant insulinoma. When hypoglycemic episodes persist in a patient with diabetes and treatment-induced and other causes of hypoglycemia have been ruled out, an insulin-producing tumor should be considered.

Keywords: Chromogranin; diabetes; hypoglycemia; insulin secretion; insulinoma.

Publication types

Case Reports