Background: Diabetes mellitus is rare in young infants and neonates. Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) is used most frequently for insulin treatment in this age group. However, the individual doctor's experience is scarce because of the low prevalence of diabetes in this age. For this study patients treated with CSII with an age below 1 year were selected from the German/Austrian DPV (Diabetes-Patienten-Verlaufsdokumentation) database, and basal rate and bolus calculation were described.
Materials and methods: For all patients less than 1 year of age, basal rate and mealtime boluses were compared among infants with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), infants with neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM), and infants with antibody status unknown diabetes mellitus (AUDM).
Results: Fifty-eight patients with T1DM, 67 neonates with NDM, and 43 infants with early diabetes development after 6 months and negative β-cell antibodies (AUDM) could be analyzed. T1DM patients at onset required a median total insulin amount of 0.83 IU/kg of body weight, whereas NDM patients required 0.74 IU/kg of body weight (P = 0.63). Basal insulin requirement however, was different between the two groups (0.56 IU/kg of body weight in NDM vs. 0.43 IU/kg in T1DM) (P = 0.036). The percentage basal profile of NDM and T1DM patients was quite similar to children at the age of 1-5 years. The proportion of prandial insulin at onset was significantly different (32% in NDM vs. 53% in T1DM) (P < 0.00001). AUDM patients showed almost similar data to T1DM patients. The pattern of mealtime bolus insulin was not different among the groups.
Conclusions: The presented data can be used as an initial guide value to start CSII treatment in neonates and infants. To be on the safe side we recommend the lower quartile for the dosage as the starting value in nonketotic patients.