Autoantibodies in Moroccan patients with type 1 diabetes: Which one to choose?

Background. Immunological investigations are intended for diagnosing T1D in atypical clinical presentation, also exploring the predisposition to T1D in a context of multiple autoimmune disorders or among the siblings of a patient with type 1 diabetes. While the diagnosing or the screening of T1D using five antibodies presents high expenses especially in emerging countries, it is for interest to determine their prevalence in order to choose the most frequent and most relevant. The aim of our study is to determine the prevalence of antibodies in Moroccan population. Methods. We investigated 62 T1D patients, the prevalence of autoantibodies was 74% for glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 auto-antibody (GADA), 46% for insulinoma-associated protein 2 autoanti body (IA2A), and 3% for islet cell antibodies (ICA). GADA and/or IA2A were reported in all patients (100%). The GADA frequency was neither associated with the duration of diabetes nor the age of patients. Results. Finally, GADAs are by far the best markers for T1D, IA2As complements GADAs and increases the diagnostic sensitivity for detection of pancreatic autoimmunity and ICA should be abandoned because of its low prevalence.