Sometimes carbohydrate solutions are given through a stomach tube all night. Drug treatment to prevent this accumulation is often necessary. In some types of glycogen storage disease, the amount of exercise children do must be limited to reduce muscle cramps. Kidney and liver damage and mental deterioration can develop if a person continues to eat foods containing fructose. The diagnosis is made when an examination of a sample of liver tissue determines that the enzyme is missing.
Doctors also test the body's response to fructose and glucose given intravenously.
Attacks of hypoglycemia are treated with glucose tablets, which should be carried by everyone who has hereditary fructose intolerance. Fructosuria is a harmless condition in which fructose is excreted in the urine. It is caused by an inherited deficiency of the enzyme fructokinase. About 1 out of 130,000 people in the general population has fructosuria. The condition produces no symptoms, but the high level of fructose in the blood and urine can lead to a misdiagnosis of diabetes mellitus.