According to a doctor at the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge Earthquake may have played a significant role in triggering type I diabetes in a number of children.

Dr. Francine Kaufman said that in the week following the temblor, which measured 6.8 on the Richter Scale, a much higher than normal new admission rate for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus was observed at her Hollywood-area hospital. Kaufman's claims first appeared in a letter to Diabetes Care magazine that she co-wrote with colleague Sunita Devgan.

"It was a week right out of a horror movie," Kaufman told DIABETES HEALTH.

Typically, according to Kaufman, Childrens Hospital admits and/or diagnoses about 40 new IDDM cases per year. Since 1989, the hospital has diagnosed more than two new cases of diabetes in a week only 4.4 percent of the time.

However, in the week following Jan. 17, 1994, six new cases of type I diabetes were reported at the institution. Kaufman said that the trauma of the earthquake - perhaps by elevating counter-regulatory hormone levels -precipitated the onset of IDDM in susceptible individuals.

"There's certainly a strong belief that significant stress can bring out diabetes," she said.

"When all these kids started coming in, I couldn't remember ever getting so many (diagnoses in such a short period of time). It was a clear statistical difference from normal."

Although numerous access roads to various centers were affected by the temblor, the referral pattern for the week of Jan. 17 did not appear different from usual, Kaufman said.

Kaufman did not conduct a citywide survey, hence it is unknown whether other centers in the Los Angeles area experienced an increase in admissions as well.

Despite Kaufman's expectations, the high number of diabetes cases diagnosed immediately after the earthquake were not indicative of the hospital getting its "quota" of new cases filled early.

"I was thinking we'd get those six cases and not get any for three weeks after that," said Kaufman.

Instead, diagnosis rates went back to normal levels after the first week and did not drop below that. In fact, the new diagnosis figures for all of 1994 did not deviate significantly from an average year, Kaufman said.

Besides new diagnoses, the hospital staff still had a lot of work to do with pre-existing patients as well.

"We had a number of kids stranded with broken meters and insulin bottles," Kaufman said. "It was a hairy time."