PathWays Case Study: Sept. 5

By Rene Revier • September 5, 2017

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A 12-year-old girl with asthma is found unresponsive in bed. She has history of suicide attempts via overdose and no history of diabetes. Her list of medications includes montelukast for her asthma.

Additional prescription medication available in the household includes Glipizide, which is prescribed for one parent's type II diabetes mellitus. A single 10 mg tablet of Glipizide is found to be missing. In the emergency room, a blood glucose of 37 mg/dL (Reference Interval, RI, for ≥ 1 year is 70-140 mg/dL) was measured.

Glucose replacement therapy began immediately, which resulted in the patient regaining consciousness with persistent hypoglycemia. Other laboratory findings included: Insulin = 92.4 mcIU/mL (RI = 2.6 - 24.9 mcIU/mL) and C-peptide = 9.5 ng/mL (1.1 - 4.4 ng/mL).

Michael Mbughuni, Ph.D.
Fellow, Clinical Biochemistry
Mayo Clinic

Paul Jannetto, Ph.D.
Consultant, Clinical Biochemistry
Mayo Clinic
Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Sciences

Loralie Langman, Ph.D.
Consultant, Clinical Biochemistry
Mayo Clinic
Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Sciences

Rene Revier

Rene Revier is an Editorial Assistant at Mayo Medical Laboratories. She supports Mayo Clinic PathWays and other corporate communications activities.