Immunologic and genetic markers in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type 1) in an Argentine population

The objective was to evaluate the prevalence and association of several markers (islet cell antibodies: ICA, ainsulin autoantibodies: IAA, glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies: GADA and ICA512 antibodies: ICA512A) along with HLA DQB1 genotype in type 1 diabetes mellitus of recent onset, including siblings and individuals without any history of this disease, in an Argentine population. A total of 79 children with type 1 diabetes mellitus of recent onset were studied, as well as 79 control children, and 68 healthy siblings of type 1 diabetic cases. IAA, ICA, GADA, ICA512A and HLA DQB1 alleles were determined. Sensitivity was 67.1% for ICA, 36.7% for IAA, 74.6% for GADA and 63.4% for ICA512A. None of the control subjects was positive for the immunological markers. Combined sensitivity of ICA-IAA-GADA was 89.8%, similar to the ICA512A- GADA (87.3%) or ICA512A-GADA-IAA combination (91.1%). GADA correlated positively with ICA, but no such correlation was found between IAA, ICA512A and ICA. IAA correlated negatively and GADA positively with age. IAA was associated to DQB1*0201, whereas ICA and ICA512A associated to DQB1*0302. Among siblings, 3/68 (4.4%) were positive for IAA and a single case (1.5%) was positive for GADA and one for ICA512A. Our findings show that the combination of multiple tests increases the sensitivity for prediction, with the ICA512A-GADA combination proving highly sensitive and equivalent to other proposed combinations, such as ICA-IAA-GADA.