Regarding World Diabetes Day 2017, the Children's Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez announced that so far this year, 104 cases of type 2 diabetes have been diagnosed in children, some of them under four years of age.
On the other hand, the most used medication in the treatment of diabetes is metformin, which occurs for administration in the form of tablets, which are difficult to swallow by children.
Given this, Mexican researchers from the National Institute of Pediatrics (INP) carried out a formulation of metformin in liquid solution that facilitates its administration in minors with diabetes.However, the medicine can also be prescribed to prevent the disease from children at risk of developing it, according to doctors Gabriela Pérez Guillé and Alemón Medina Radamés, from the INP Pharmacology Laboratory, and who were part of the product research protocol.
Metformin helps the body's body with type 2 diabetes respond to the action of insulin, because despite producing the hormone it is not well assimilated and propitiates that blood glucose levels rise.
“Until a few years ago there was no pediatric presentation of metformin in Mexico, because there was no need for it, that is, there were only isolated cases of children with type 2 diabetes. But the increase in the number of minors with obesity and overweight has causedthat the number of cases in infants has increased, ”says Dr. Alemón Medina.
Since there are medications that do not have a pediatric presentation, the Pharmacology Laboratory of the INP has worked on new formulations that facilitate the administration in children.
Particularly, the one referring to the liquid presentation of metformin was subjected to evaluation and approval by the Ethics and Research Committees of the institution, which gave rise to the development of the protocol.The formula validation study in children has concluded, and 38 children and adolescents participated.
“The experience of the new formulation with the patients who participated in the protocol indicates that it can be administered to children under ten years of age.In adolescents who already give adult weight, the tablet can be administered, ”says the specialist.
For her part, Dr. Pérez Guillé clarifies that in other countries there are liquid metformin formulations, but in ours there is no presentation of the medication, so in the INP a complete protocol has been carried out.The next step will be to disseminate this information, to modify the presentation of the drug, in other health institutions that require it.
According to figures from the State Commission for Protection against Health Risks (COEPRIS), four out of 10 children between 6 and 11 years of age are obese, which places Mexico as the second country worldwide with this level at the level at levelpediatric.
Dr. Alemón Medina points out that in children and adolescents there are factors that can profile them as possible patients with diabetes when they reach young adults, for example, who have overweight or obesity or that in family there is a history of the condition.
Another indicative signs of insulin resistance or indication of diabetes is acanthosis nigricans or blackening of the skin where folds are formed, such as neck, English, armpits and others.
Finally, both doctors emphasize that poor diet and sedentary life make more and more children, potential diabetic patients, to which parents must take preventive actions.
