June 30, 2005
Other
Question from Ogden, Utah, USA:
What laboratory tests distinguish type 1 diabetes, type 1.5 diabetes, and type 2 diabetes?
Answer:
None are perfect. Antibodies, if positive (islet cell, GAD, insulin antibodies) would suggest type 1 autoimmune diabetes. They are less likely to be positive in very young children and less likely to be positive after many years of diabetes since the antibodies often wane. Type 2 would not have these positive antibodies. Type 1.5 is a combination of some antibody positive and some obesity related diabetes (as is LADA, a slow form of type 1 that happens in adults and not kids).
SB
Additional comments from Dr. David Schwartz:
In my experience, younger children, less than age 2 years, often have rather high amounts of anti-insulin antibodies at the time of diagnosis and not the other GAD 65 and ICA512 antibodies.
I think that “Type 1.5” diabetes is more of a colloquialism than a defined entity.
DS
