Any transient neonatal diabetes mellitus in which the cause of the disease is a mutation in the KCNJ11 gene.

A small number of individuals with permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus have an underdeveloped pancreas. Because the pancreas produces digestive enzymes as well as secreting insulin and other hormones, affected individuals experience digestive problems such as fatty stools and an inability to absorb fat-soluble vitamins.\n\nIn some cases, people with permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus also have certain neurological problems, including developmental delay and recurrent seizures (epilepsy). This combination of developmental delay, epilepsy, and neonatal diabetes is called DEND syndrome. Intermediate DEND syndrome is a similar combination but with milder developmental delay and without epilepsy.\n\nIndividuals with permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus experience slow growth before birth (intrauterine growth retardation). Affected infants have hyperglycemia and an excessive loss of fluids (dehydration) and are unable to gain weight and grow at the expected rate (failure to thrive).\n\nPermanent neonatal diabetes mellitus is a type of diabetes that first appears within the first 6 months of life and persists throughout the lifespan. This form of diabetes is characterized by high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) resulting from a shortage of the hormone insulin. Insulin controls how much glucose (a type of sugar) is passed from the blood into cells for conversion to energy.

Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a group of several conditions characterized by abnormally high levels of blood glucose, also called blood sugar. These forms of diabetes typically begin before age 30, although they can occur later in life. In MODY, elevated blood glucose arises from reduced production of insulin, which is a hormone produced in the pancreas that helps regulate blood glucose levels. Specifically, insulin controls how much glucose (a type of sugar) is passed from the blood into cells, where it is used as an energy source.\n\nThe different types of MODY are distinguished by their genetic causes. The most common types are HNF1A-MODY (also known as MODY3), accounting for 50 to 70 percent of cases, and GCK-MODY (MODY2), accounting for 30 to 50 percent of cases. Less frequent types include HNF4A-MODY (MODY1) and renal cysts and diabetes (RCAD) syndrome (also known as HNF1B-MODY or MODY5), which each account for 5 to 10 percent of cases. At least ten other types have been identified, and these are very rare.\n\nHNF1A-MODY and HNF4A-MODY have similar signs and symptoms that develop slowly over time. Early signs and symptoms in these types are caused by high blood glucose and may include frequent urination (polyuria), excessive thirst (polydipsia), fatigue, blurred vision, weight loss, and recurrent skin infections. Over time uncontrolled high blood glucose can damage small blood vessels in the eyes and kidneys. Damage to the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye (the retina) causes a condition known as diabetic retinopathy that can lead to vision loss and eventual blindness. Kidney damage (diabetic nephropathy) can lead to kidney failure and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). While these two types of MODY are very similar, certain features are particular to each type. For example, babies with HNF4A-MODY tend to weigh more than average or have abnormally low blood glucose at birth, even though other signs of the condition do not occur until childhood or young adulthood. People with HNF1A-MODY have a higher-than-average risk of developing noncancerous (benign) liver tumors known as hepatocellular adenomas.\n\nGCK-MODY is a very mild type of the condition. People with this type have slightly elevated blood glucose levels, particularly in the morning before eating (fasting blood glucose). However, affected individuals often have no symptoms related to the disorder, and diabetes-related complications are extremely rare.\n\nRCAD is associated with a combination of diabetes and kidney or urinary tract abnormalities (unrelated to the elevated blood glucose), most commonly fluid-filled sacs (cysts) in the kidneys. However, the signs and symptoms are variable, even within families, and not everyone with RCAD has both features. Affected individuals may have other features unrelated to diabetes, such as abnormalities of the pancreas or liver or a form of arthritis called gout.

Permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus (PNDM) is characterized by the onset of hyperglycemia within the first six months of life (mean age: 7 weeks; range: birth to 26 weeks). The diabetes mellitus is associated with partial or complete insulin deficiency. Clinical manifestations at the time of diagnosis include intrauterine growth retardation, hyperglycemia, glycosuria, osmotic polyuria, severe dehydration, and failure to thrive. Therapy with insulin corrects the hyperglycemia and results in dramatic catch-up growth. The course of PNDM varies by genotype.

Permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus-2 (PNDM2) is characterized by onset of insulin-requiring hyperglycemia within the first months of life that requires insulin therapy throughout life. Some patients additionally have marked developmental delay, muscle weakness, and epilepsy (Gloyn et al., 2004). The triad of developmental delay, epilepsy, and neonatal diabetes is known as DEND (Shimomura et al., 2007). Proks et al. (2006) stated that heterozygous activating mutations in KCNJ11 are the most common cause of PNDM and account for 26 to 64% of cases, and that neurologic features are found in 20% of patients with KCNJ11 mutations. For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus, see PNDM1 (606176).

Permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus-4 (PNDM4) is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia due to severe nonautoimmune insulin deficiency diagnosed in the first months of life (summary by Polak et al., 2008). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus, see PNDM1 (606176).