Multifactorial origin of hypoglycemic symptom unawareness in IDDM: Association with defective glucose counterregulation and better glycemic control

To assess potential relationships between unawareness of hypoglycemic symptoms and both defective glucose counterregulation and therapy-associated altered glycemic thresholds, symptoms and hormonal responses to hypoglycemia were quantitated during standardized insulin infusion tests in 41 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). The glycemic thresholds for both neurogenic and neuroglycopenic symptoms (and those for both epinephrine and pancreatic polypeptide release) were at lower plasma glucose concentrations in both patients with defective (n = 9, 22%) and those with adequate glucose counterregulation and, among the latter, in patients with lower compared with higher glycosylated hemoglobin levels. The data are consistent with the concept that both defective glucose counterregulation and improved glycemic control contribute to excessive hypoglycemia in IDDM by reducing awareness of symptoms of developing hypoglycemia and by impairing physiological defenses against hypoglycemia. Thus, hypoglycemic symptom unawareness is multifactorial in origin and may be partly reversible.