Familial insulin-resistant diabetes, multiple somatic anomalies, and pineal hyperplasia

Abstract

West, R. J., Lloyd, J. K., and Turner, W. M. L. (1975). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 50, 703. Familial insulin-resistant diabetes, multiple somatic anomalies, and pineal hyperplasia. A syndrome comprising unusual facies, dry skin, acanthosis nigricans, thickened nails, hirsutism, dental precocity and dysplasia, abdominal protuberance, and phallic enlargement is described in 2 sibs. Both have developed diabetic ketoacidosis with insulin resistance. The elder child, a girl, had recurrent septic episodes and died at the age of 7-8 years. At necropsy the pineal gland was hyperplastic, weighing 900 mg. Investigation of the younger sib over a 4-year period has shown decreasing glucose tolerance, and he was frankly diabetic with ketoacidosis by the age of 6-8 years. Serum insulin concentrations have always been grossly raised. Though the mechanism for insulin resistance has not been definitely established, a functional abnormality of the hypothalamus or pituitary is postulated to explain the many endocrine features of the syndrome.