March 21, 2004
Other
Question from Pennsylvania, USA:
I read a post from a mom who indicated that there is a difference between type one diabetes and IDDM. I thought they were one in the same. It was indicated that if a child was diagnosed with IDDM and not type one diabetes, than that child was not at risk for other autoimmune diseases. Again, I thought type 1 diabetes and IDDM was the same thing, just different jargon. Could you please clarify this?
Answer:
There is no difference between type 1 and insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). It’s just different terminology from different folks. Whether or not there are positive auto-antibodies present is another issue since not all patients have positive antibodies in their blood. The younger the child, the less likely. Also, the older the patient, less likely to be antibody positive. But, the assumption is that all type 1 diabetes is autoimmune except for those related to pancreatic trauma, pancreatitis, or surgical removal of the pancreas. Then, these are non-autoimmune types of type 1 or IDDM.
SB
