The consequences of hypoglycaemia

Hypoglycaemia (blood glucose concentration below the normal range) has been recognised as a complication of insulin treatment from the very first days of the discovery of insulin, and remains a major concern for people with diabetes, their families and healthcare professionals today. Acute hypoglycaemia stimulates a stress response that acts to restore circulating glucose, but plasma glucose concentrations can still fall too low to sustain normal brain function and cardiac rhythm. There are long-term consequences of recurrent hypoglycaemia, which are still not fully understood. This paper reviews our current understanding of the acute and cumulative consequences of hypoglycaemia in insulin-treated diabetes.