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| Categories: Additional article for types of Diabetes |
| Additional article for types of Diabetes | |
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Diabetes already during infancy?!?
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Diabetes is similar to a heart attack. As macabre as this simile might be, there are similarities between those two: The sooner doctors know who will get diabetes type 1, the better they can influence on the autoimmune reaction.
It is common knowledge that diabetes is inheritable. Since 1989 the diabetes research institute in Munich investigates on how diabetes type 1 is inherited.
Within the so-called BABYDIAB-study the blood, nutrition and vaccination of more than 2000 babies whose parents suffered from diabetes had been observed. Because of this, important knowledge on the early phase of the autoimmune destruction of beta cells in the pancreas could be gained. Furthermore factors which possibly influence on the immune reaction could be traced and the predictability of type 1 diabetes was discovered.
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1) How often do children of parents who suffer from diabetes (at least one of them) get diabetes themselves?
The average risk for those children lies around 6%. As the term autoimmune reaction already implicates, the persons concerned do have so-called islet auto antibodies in their blood. Those antibodies destroy different parts of the cells which produce insulin in the pancreas.
Therefore we may distinguish between antibodies against insulin (IAB), against glutamate decarboxylase (GAD-antibodies) and against tyrosine phosphates (IA-2-antibodies). In contrast to the previous view, today we know that those antibodies can be traced years before type 1 diabetes gets noticeable. For this reason it is theoretically possible to diagnose diabetes very early and to treat it in time.
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2) The BABYDIAB-study
If a child develops type 1 diabetes, it is possible to detect the antibodies already in the first two years.
If children develop at least two of the three antibodies mentioned above in the first two years, the risk that they will suffer from diabetes before turning 10 is next to 100 %.
The BABYDIAB-study showed that about 4 % of all examined children had developed more than one antibody before their second birthday.
Those children got diabetes mellitus before they were 10 years old.
Meanwhile, it is an undoubted fact that heritage plays a noticeable part concerning the occurrence of those antibodies mentioned above.
Up to now, the BABYDIAB-study does not show any connection between the duration of the nursing period or vaccinations and the emerging of antibodies or the diabetes mellitus.
Most of the families participating in this study could be relieved because their children did not develop any antibodies and therefore the risk of developing diabetes mellitus is very small.
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3) What is examined and how does it go on?
The first blood sample taken during birth from the umbilical cord or afterwards by a pedriatic doctor is used to determine genetic characteristics.
The first possibility has clear advantages as the baby is not hurt or strained in any other way. If no high-risk characteristics such as DR ¾ or DR 4/4 (which increase the risk of developing antibodies to 20 %) can be found, frequent re-examinations checking for antibodies should be done.
Children showing high-risk characteristics should also take part in frequent examinations and visit the dietetic centre.
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Further information under: prevent.diabetes@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
source : DiabetesProfi, April 2002, p.60-62
Translated by Jella Eifler |
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