Analysis index

1 ml serum

< 5 JDFU

Early diagnosis of type 1 diabetes mellitus. Testing of first-grade relatives of type 1 diabetics, differentiation of the individual diabetes forms.

We recommend the evaluation of at least 3 of the 4 well-established markers (Islet-cell-, GAD-, IA2- and zinc transporter 8-autoantibodies) if there is suspicion of type 1 diabetes as well as for first-grade relatives of type 1 diabetics. Islet-cell autoantibodies are detectable in 60 % – 90 % of patients with initial manifestation of type 1 diabetes mellitus. The absence of autoantibodies however, does not rule out type 1 diabetes mellitus nor “Late Autoimmune Diabetes of the Adult (LADA)”. In approximately 30 % of these patients, zinc transporter 8-autoantibodies can be found. Determination of insulin-autoantibodies (not to be confused with islet-cell autoantibodies) is very much age-dependent. Whilst they can be seen in 90 % of the first manifestations of type 1 diabetes in children, they are only  present in 20 % of cases in adults. One speaks of “idiopathic type 1 diabetes mellitus”, when there is a permanent, distinctive insulin deficiency but no autoantibodies nor an association to particular HLADR/DQA- or as HLADR/DQB alleles are detected. This however is very rare and predominantly affects Asians and Africans.

Labor Zentrum Weser Prof. Dr. med. Schmitz Minden