Researchers develop new method of diagnosing type 1 diabetes
A leading research team, at Harvard Medical School, has developed a more sensitive technique for identifying the hallmarks of type 1 diabetes.
Whilst a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes will usually follow the appearance of the symptoms of diabetes such as increased thirst, frequent need to urinate and persistent tiredness, it is not always so easy for doctors to accurately determine the exact type of diabetes.
Doctors can perform an additional check for high ketone levels, but even then, higher than normal ketone levels can appear in people without type 1 diabetes. Uncertainty over which type of diabetes someone has can cause that patient to be put onto inappropriate treatment which could cause them difficulty in adequately managing their diabetes and lead to greater risks of diabetes complications and unnecessary medication side effects.
The ideal test for determining type 1 diabetes is to check for the presence of specific autoantibodies in the blood. In type 1 diabetes, the body has an autoimmune reaction which leads the immune system to regard the insulin producing cells of the pancreas as an invading pathogen that needs to be destroyed. Having islet cell autoantibodies in the blood is therefore a hallmark of type 1 diabetes.
There are tests …read more
Source:: News from Diabetes.co.uk