Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jul 10, 2015; 6(7): 912-926
Published online Jul 10, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i7.912
Mechanisms of hypoglycemia unawareness and implications in diabetic patients
Iciar Martín-Timón, Francisco Javier del Cañizo-Gómez
Iciar Martín-Timón, Francisco Javier del Cañizo-Gómez, Section of Endocrinology, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense, 28031 Madrid, Spain
Author contributions: Martín-Timón I and del Cañizo-Gómez FJ contributed equally to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Francisco Javier del Cañizo-Gómez, Professor, Chief, Section of Endocrinology, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense, Avda Gran Vía del Este 80, 28031 Madrid, Spain. fjcanizog@salud.madrid.org
Telephone: +34-91-1918000 Fax: +34-91-1918878
Received: August 1, 2014
Peer-review started: August 2, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: December 30, 2014
Accepted: March 30, 2015
Article in press: April 2, 2015
Published online: July 10, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: This review describes novel mechanisms by which people with insulin-treated diabetes develop hypoglycemia unawareness (HU), the consequences that HU has on the person with diabetes and their family, the evidence for prevention and treatment of HU, and the effects of medications that may influence it.