Neonatal Diabetes Mellitus

To the Editor: The data on neonatal diabetes mellitus reported by von Mühlendahl and Herkenhoff (Sept. 14 issue) 1 indicate that the causes of this rare condition are heterogeneous. Among the 57 infants, only 7 were known to have HLA haplotypes associated with autoimmune diabetes. In most of the cases, the cause was unknown, and several infants also had very rare genetic disorders. The authors, however, failed to mention some published reports of cases of neonatal diabetes in which a cause could be demonstrated or suggested. The causes included pancreatic aplasia, a congenital absence of the islets, and selective agenesis of . . .