Although the diagnosis of nondiabetic glycosuria is not infrequently made, to the practicing physician the label is still not an altogether happy one. Given repeated credible reports of glycosuria, the burden of proof still rests heavily on the physician who says "this is not diabetes." Nevertheless, the recent survey of Marble, Joslin and associates1 bears out the correctness of the diagnosis and demonstrates that the condition is usually benign.
It is especially difficult to rule out diabetes in children. Since the variations of blood sugar in the child are so great, normal readings are not always a guarantee of normal sugar metabolism: On a moderately restricted diet a child with mild diabetes may have a normal fasting or an occasionally normal postprandial reading. Also, since a neglected diabetic condition in childhood may deteriorate so rapidly, the responsibility is great for detecting the disease as early as possible.
But it