Hypoglycemia during Diarrhea in Childhood

To the Editor: The study from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (May 10 issue)* provides important data that could improve the outcome of children with diarrhea. Two questions arise whose answers would allow clinicians to assess how the results can be applied to children from industrialized countries who have diarrhea. First, why did the children die? Knowing the causes of death may lend insight into the premorbid condition of the patients and provide clues to the mechanism by which hypoglycemia causes mortality in children with diarrhea. Second, what were the glucogenic amino acids other than alanine in . . .