Medicine
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Normoglycemic remission has been observed in black non-insulin-dependent diabetic individuals. Thirty-three patients presented with severe hyperglycemia (mean glucose 682 mg/dl) and were hospitalized for initial treatment. Following intensive outpatient therapy including insulin or sulfonylurea for 0.25 to 96 weeks, they became normoglycemic without pharmacologic treatment. ⋯ Islet cell antibodies were uniformly absent, implying that these individuals did not have an autoimmune form of diabetes. It is not known if remission in non-insulin-dependent diabetes is unique to the black population. Neither the prevalence nor the mechanism of the development of remission is known at this time.