Recently, my two year old grandson as admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and had high blood sugars which the doctors thought it might just be a fluke. They ordered a GAD test which came back negative, so we thought he did not have diabetes, but his blood sugars still run high, and he was diagnosed with type�1 diabetes. What are the odds of the GAD test being negative and my grandson still having diabetes? Could there be something else we need to be looking at?

By far the most likely possibility, if your grandson is of Caucasian descent, is that he does indeed have type�1A (autoimmune) diabetes. This cannot be excluded because his anti-GAD test was negative. His parents should talk to the doctor about getting the other two standard antibody tests, which are the ICA512 or islet cell antibodies (but not the old immunofluoresence test), and the IAA or anti-insulin antibody test.

There is approximately a 5% chance that he might have type�1B diabetes which is indistinguishable clinically, but in which the conventional antibody tests are all negative, and there is about a 50% chances of becoming insulin independent after a number of weeks.

DOB