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Diabetes mellitus type 1

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Diabetes mellitus type 1 (Type 1 diabetes, T1D, T1DM, IDDM, juvenile diabetes) is a form of diabetes mellitus. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that results in destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Lack of insulin causes an increase of fasting blood glucose (around 70-120 mg/dL in nondiabetic people) that begins to appear in the urine above the renal threshold (about 190-200 mg/dl in most people), thus connecting to the symptom by which the disease was identified in antiquity, sweet urine. Glycosuria or glucose in the urine causes the patients to urinate more frequently, and drink more than normal (polydipsia). Classically, these were the characteristic symptoms which prompted discovery of the disease.

Type 1 is lethal unless treated with exogenous insulin. Injection is the traditional and still most common method for administering insulin; jet injection, indwelling catheters, and inhaled insulin has also been available at various times, and there are several experimental methods as well. All replace the missing hormone formerly produced by the now non-functional beta cells in the pancreas. In recent years, pancreas transplants have also been used to treat type 1 diabetes. Islet cell transplant is also being investigated and has been achieved in mice and rats, and in experimental trials in humans as well. Use of stem cells to produce a new population of functioning beta cells seems to be a future possibility, but has yet to be demonstrated even in laboratories as of 2008.

Type 1 diabetes (formerly known as "childhood", "juvenile" or "insulin-dependent" diabetes) is not exclusively a childhood problem; the adult incidence of type 1 is noteworthy—many adults who contract type 1 diabetes are misdiagnosed with type 2 due to confusion on this point.

There is currently no clinically useful preventive measure against developing type 1 diabetes, though a vaccine has been proposed and anti-antibody approaches are also being tested. Most people who develop type 1 were otherwise healthy and of a healthy weight on onset, but they can lose weight quickly and dangerously, if not promptly diagnosed. Although the cause of type 1 diabetes is still not fully understood, the immune system damage is characteristic of type 1.

The most definite laboratory test to distinguish type 1 from type 2 diabetes is the C-peptide assay, which is a measure of endogenous insulin production since external insulin has not (to date) included C-peptide. The presence of anti-islet antibodies (to Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase, Insulinoma Associated Peptide-2 or insulin), or lack of insulin resistance, determined by a glucose tolerance test, would also be suggestive of type 1. Many type 2 diabetics continue to produce insulin internally, and all have some degree of insulin resistance.

Testing for GAD 65 antibodies has been proposed as an improved test for differentiating between type 1 and type 2 diabetes as it appears that the immune system malfunction is connected with their presence.

For more information about Diabetes mellitus type 1, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with type 1 diabetes


UM scientists create fruit fly model to help unravel genetics of human diabetes

Scientists create fruit fly model to help unravel genetics of human diabetes

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

As rates of obesity, diabetes, and related disorders have reached epidemic proportions in the US in recent years, scientists are working from many angles to pinpoint the causes and contributing factors involved ...


Cardiovascular risk in youth with type 1 diabetes linked primarily to insulin resistance

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created 16 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), youth with type 1 diabetes have now been found to have abnormal insulin resistance. Having abnor ...





Search results for type 1 diabetes


Diabetics show alarming increase in morbid obesity

Medicine & Health / Health

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

A Loyola University Health System study has found that one out of five Type 2 diabetics is morbidly obese -- approximately 100 pounds or more overweight.


Molecule discovered that makes obese people develop diabetes

Molecule discovered that makes obese people develop diabetes

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Many people who are overweight or obese develop insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes at some stage in their lives. A European research team has now discovered that obese people have large amounts of the ...


Is type 2 diabetes mellitus a risk factor for gallbladder, biliary and pancreatic cancer?

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

There are minimal data assessing the relationship between diabetes with gallbladder, biliary and pancreatic cancer. Recent small studies have suggested an elevated risk of pancreatic cancer only in patients with diabetes ...


Lifestyle changes may stave off diabetes for a decade

Medicine & Health / Health

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Sustaining modest weight loss for 10 years, or taking an anti-diabetic drug over that time, can prevent or lower the incidence of type 2 diabetes in people at high risk for developing the disease, according to the Diabetes ...


Physician bias might keep life-saving transplants from black and Hispanic patients

Medicine & Health / Other

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Physician bias might be the reason why African Americans are not receiving kidney/pancreas transplants at the same rate as similar patients in other racial groups. Dr. Keith Melancon, director of kidney and pancreas transplantation ...


Drug therapy more cost-effective than angioplasty for diabetic patients with heart disease

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Many patients with diabetes should forego angioplasties for heart disease and just take medicine instead, according to a new National Institutes of Health study led by Stanford University School of Medicine researcher Mark ...


Glucose intolerance in pregnancy associated with postpartum cardiovascular risk

Medicine & Health / Health

created 16 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Women who have gestational glucose intolerance (a condition less severe than gestational diabetes) exhibit multiple cardiovascular risk factors as early as three months after birth, according to a new study accepted for publication ...


Sugary cola drinks linked for first time to higher risk of gestational diabetes

Medicine & Health / Health

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers from LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's ...


Obesity significantly increases side effects of stereotactic body radiation therapy in lung cancer patients

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Obesity, not the amount of radiation given, is the greatest factor in whether early-stage lung cancer patients develop chest wall pain after receiving stereotactic body radiation therapy to the chest wall, with obese patients ...


Diabetes surgery summit consensus lays foundation for new field of medicine

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A first-of-its-kind consensus statement on diabetes surgery is published online today in the Annals of Surgery. The report illustrates the findings of the first international consensus conference -- Diabetes Surgery Summit ...



List of search results for type 1 diabetes