PEDIATRICS Vol. 48 No. 5 November 1971, pp. 836-838
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Hypoglycemia and Hypothermia in Terminal Leukemia

Norman Jaffe M.B., B.CH., Dip. Paed.1 and Byung Soo Kim M.D.1

1 Tumor Therapy Service, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Children's Cancer Research Foundation, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

In 1967, Tashima1 stated that hypoglycemia in leukemia was so rare that "its occurrence in the leukemic patient should suggest an islet cell tumor or a concomitant retroperitoneal tumor." Most of the reports of hypoglycemia in leukemic patients were ascribed to in vitro glycolysis by leukocytes and were designated "artifactual hypoglycemia."2,3 Experimentally the phenomenon had been produced in test mice where lymphatic leukemia grows as a solid tumor.4,5

Hypothermia is an occasional manifestation of hypoglycemia; it is receiving increasing recognition and is considered a useful diagnostic aid.6,7 Its appearance is not dependent on the cause of the hypoglycemia.

This patient with acute myelogenous leukemia experienced several episodes of hypothermia and hypoglycemia which responded to intravenous dextrose.