Prevalence of Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adult (LADA) among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (D.M.2) in Karbala

Abstract

Objective: the aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of LADA among group of clinically diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus.Methodology: sample size equal to 280 patients with type 2 D.M. were subjected in this study, participating patients were consecutively recruited from Diabetes outpatient clinic in AL-Hussein Teaching Hospital in Karbala from June, 2013 through January, 2014. A clinical questioner containing personal data, family history, type of diabetes, type of treatment, FBS, HA1C, BMI, diabetes duration& complications of diabetes. For analysis of data Prevalence of LADA among D.M.2 cases was calculated as the proportion of LADA cases in the D.M.2 cases. The Chi square test (X2) was used to assess the significance (P-value) of differences in frequencies of categorical variables. Results: prevalence of LADA among D.M.2 patients was 12.1%. A significant difference in family history, BMI, FBS, HA1C and duration of D.M was found between the studied groups.Conclusion: The prevalence of LADA is clinically underestimated among D.M2 patients and age of onset of diabetes should no longer be considered as a valid way to differentiate diabetes. Recommendation: the study recommends screening for islet cell autoantibodies as GAD65 for all patients with diabetes at onset or beginning of disease.