Complications of childhood diabetes and the role of technology

Abstract

Technology for detecting vascular complications of childhood diabetes has already helped many children and youth by allowing for the early detection and intervention of impending or present problems as the result of the diabetes state. Prior to the advent of screening, young people developed clinical disease, in particular visual loss and renal impairment that often rapidly progressed to end-stage disease. With the advent of laser photocoagulation, which dramatically reduced visual loss from diabetic retinopathy, the importance of early detection and treatment of micro and macrovascular complications prior to clinical symptoms became apparent. Many technological advances are now being applied to the pediatric diabetes population, in either clinical care or the research setting. For example, retinal photography makes screening more accessible and more meaningful to adolescents with diabetes and can be used in large screening programs, for teleophthalmology, clinical trials and in geographically remote areas. Quantitative measures used to assess microvascular structure may be useful in monitoring interventions in the future. Quantitative sensory tests can monitor nerve dysfunction, but evaluations such as intraepidermal nerve fibre pathology and cornea confocal microscopy may be more sensitive to diagnose neuropathic complications in youth. B-mode ultrasonography can assess vascular function by measuring endothelium-dependent flow mediated dilatation and changes in the intima-media thickness of the carotid and aorta. It is the purpose of this manuscript to explore the role of present and future technological advances (Table 1) in young people with diabetes.