| Abstrakt: |
To the Editor:—In the QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS section (208:159, 1969), the advice is given that a five-hour glucose tolerance test should be done in order to rule out the possibility of hypoglycemia producing grand mal seizures.A contrary opinion is that hypoglycemia may occur as a result of a number of factors, including the administration of insulin, the use of the sulfonylurea drugs, and several varieties of neoplasms. There is also, commonly, an appreciable fall of the blood sugar to levels below the fasting about three-to-four hours after a loading dose of glucose, or a meal. This latter form of hypoglycemia, in an otherwise healthy person, would not be expected to be severe enough to produce a grand mal seizure. A five-hour glucose tolerance test is an appropriate means for identifying this reactive hypoglycemia, but is a relatively poor means of detecting and proving the other forms of |
