To the Editor: The interesting work done by Dr. Rosenbaum and his colleagues concerning diabetic and prediabetic nephropathy in childhood published in the July issue (Amer J Dis Child 106:83, 1963) prompts us to comment about some functional peculiarities of the diabetic kidney in children.
Rosenbaum et al mention that the creatinine clearances of their patients, with the possible exception of one child, were all within normal limits. Yet, in fact, six of the 11 diabetic children had a 24-hour endogenous creatinine clearance of 150-193 ml/min/1.73 sq meters. To our knowledge, these are very high values for normal children and adults. Insofar as the reported renal clearances of endogenous creatinine correspond with the glomerular filtration rate, the kidney of the diabetic child seems to present frequently with an elevated filtration rate.
We arrived at this conclusion because of the very high inulin clearance values (162-269 ml/ min/1.73 sq meters) which