ArticleThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene2026
Low Blood Glucose and Its Relation to Electrolyte Derangements and Metabolic Acidosis in Critically Ill Children in Malawi.
Article in The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Critically ill children with low blood glucose concentrations in low-income settings suffer a high risk of mortality independent of other signs of disease severity and despite administration of the currently recommended treatment of hypoglycemia. This study explores other pathways that may relate to the high mortality risk, namely electrolyte derangements, metabolic acidosis, and hyperketonemia. Children ages 1 month to 5 years old presenting with one or more WHO emergency signs were recruited upon arrival to the Pediatric Accident and Emergency Department at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Malawi between November 2022 and June 2024. A total of 12 hypoglycemic (blood glucose <2.5 mmol/L), 36 low glycemic (blood glucose 2.5-4.9 mmol/L), and 201 normoglycemic (blood glucose 5.0-10.0 mmol/L) children were enrolled. Low glycemic children had increased odds of acidosis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 5.84, 95% CI: 1.17-29.2 for moderate acidosis; aOR = 27.1, 95% CI: 6.08-120.9 for severe acidosis). Among children with acidosis, there were increased odds of hypokalemia (aOR = 24.5, 95% CI: 2.91-205.88), hyponatremia (aOR = 2.58, 95% CI: 1.33-4.99 for moderate acidosis; aOR = 3.62, 95% CI: 1.71-7.68 for severe acidosis), and hypernatremia (aOR = 9.42, 95% CI: 2.50-35.5 for severe acidosis). There were no increased odds of potassium or sodium derangements in those with low glucose concentrations. Low blood glucose concentrations were associated with metabolic acidosis, which in turn, was associated with hypokalemia and hyponatremia/hypernatremia. However, there was no direct association between low blood glucose and electrolyte derangements.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.