The articles in this symposium evolved from the April 1976 program of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, St Louis. We, the authors, were motivated by the importance of transmitting present concepts of diabetes to the pediatric community. The reader's task will be no less formidable than that of the writers. We hope that he will tolerate the litany of observations, some consistent and continuous, some disparate and conflicting, for the comfort of an occasional connecting thread or rational hypothesis.
Throughout this symposium we use the terms "insulin-dependent" and "non-insulin-dependent" rather than the imprecise "juvenile" or "juvenileonset" and "adult" or "maturityonset." The term "insulin-dependent" is synonymous with ketosis-prone and means that insulin therapy is vital. Although this form of diabetes is typical of childhood, it can occur at any age, emphasizing the greater clarity of the terms we have chosen. The pediatrician is also seeing increasing numbers of non-insulin-dependent patients,