July 23, 2001
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela:
My 20 year old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just three months ago. She is in very good control, but she has not taken the antibody test because In Venezuela it is almost impossible to find a lab that perform that test. How important is the antibody test?
From your answers to other questions I have read that there is a type of diabetes called idiopathic diabetes or 1B (mostly in Hispanic population), and in those cases the antibody test gives negative results. Being that my daughter is Hispanic, should I insist in my daughter takes the antibody test? Are there other test to check if her diabetes is type 1A or 1B? What is the specific antibody test that I should ask for?
Answer:
From the clinical point of view, the eventual presence of autoantibodies and the differentiation between type�1A and type�1B makes no real difference given your daughter’s very good metabolic control.
As far as other tests, l would suggest testing C-peptide to assess the residual endogenous insulin production from her own pancreas.
MSB
