Diabetic encephalopathy in pediatric diabetes mellitus: pathophysiology and clinical manifestations (review)

Objective: to present up-to-date scientific information concerning the pathophysiological and clinical features of diabetic encephalopathy (DE) in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). A total of 44 publications were analyzed, obtained from the Cochrane Library, PubMed, eLibrary.ru and Medscape using the following search queries: "diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents", "diabetic encephalopathy", "pathophysiology of diabetic encephalopathy in childhood" and "clinical manifestations of diabetic encephalopathy in childhood". The analyzed literature was published in the year range of 2008 to 2021. This work provides a general overview and describes the etiology, pathophysiology and clinical manifestations of DE in children and adolescents in the setting of type 1 DM. It comes to a conclusion that an understanding of the mechanisms of development of this complication, coupled with timely diagnosis, will help minimize the progression of central nervous system damage in this category of patients.