An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is rarely indicated in making the diagnosis diabetes in childhood and adolescence. If doubt exists, it is easies to monitor the child or adolescent regularly with urine testing for glycosuria and to perform random blood tests to detect hyperglycaemia.

If the decision is made to proceed with diagnostic testing then an OGTT may be indicated if symptoms are present and a random venous plasma glucose concentration taken a least 2 hours after eating is 5.5 - 11.0 mmol/L and if in asymptomatic individuals the fasting venous plasma glucose is 5.5-7.7 mmol/L.

Nutritional status and caloric intake of the mother during pregnancy can profoundly change future morphological, metabolical or mental development of the offspring. With regard to exercise, Arshavsky showed that newborns of hare mothers that swam daily during the last third of pregnancy were born with larger hearts.

Offspring of rat mothers that exercised for 1 hr daily on a treadmill, starting with the 2nd or 3rd day after mating, were therefore studied. Total body weights at birth and during as well as at the end of experiment did not differ. Fifty and 100 day old male offspring were studied from the point of view of the microstructure of the heart muscle, which has an important relationship to the functional capacity of the cardiovascular system.

Until the development of recombinant DNA technology in the 1980s, insulin was purified from porcine or beef pancreatic tissue. Human recombinan insulins are now the most widely used forms and are the recommended first line preparations in the paediatric age group. Bovine insulins remain a useful second line group of insulins, especially in the very young and in those in whom there seems to be an exaggerated tendency to hypoglycaemia at the time of peak action of the insulin preparation.

Body weight and fat proportion were always lowest in exercising animals ( run daily on a motor driven treadmill since the 18th day of life for 2-3 hr per day, with a speed up to 18 m/min,-i.e., medium or mild exercise of an aerobic character) with the highest caloric intake. Highest weight and fat together with the lowest caloric intake were found in hypokinetic animals (housed in spaces 8 x 12 x 20 cm since weaning). These differences were most apparent after the end of exponential growth, i.e., approximately at 100-120 days of age. Additional exercise can manifest its impact in adult life relatively more markedly when the level of spontaneous physical activity is already declining.

Moreover, a higher level of metabolic activity was found in the adipose tissue in exercised animals; experiments with injected palmitate showed a lower inflow rate of fatty acids into the adipose tissue of the exercised animals, even when measured 24 hr after the last work load on the trdadmill. On the other hand, the inflow rate of palmitate into the heart and soleus muscle under the same conditions was significantly higher in the exercised animals, indicating a higher utilization of lipid metabolites after adaptation to aerobic exercise.