Prevalence of double diabetes in youth onset diabetes patients from east Delhi and neighboring NCR region

Background

It is being increasingly reported that some of the youth onset diabetes patients cannot be classified clearly as type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) based on usual criteria and the term double diabetes (DD) coined for these cases.

Aim

The objective of the study was to find out the prevalence of DD in youth onset diabetes patients from east Delhi and neighboring NCR region.

Methods

A total of 200 patients with youth onset diabetes below 25 years of age were recruited from a tertiary care hospital in East Delhi. Clinical history, family history of diabetes and anthropometry of patients were recorded. Fasting serum C-peptide, Anti-IA2-antibody and Anti-GAD-antibody were measured in all patients. Patients positive for Anti-GAD-antibody (>1.05 U/ml) and C-peptide level >0.3 nmol/l were characterized as DD patients. Patients negative for Anti-GAD-antibody and C-peptide >0.3 nmol/l were kept under the category of T2DM. Patients with low C-peptide level along with one of the following, positive Anti-GAD-antibody, positive Anti-IA2-antibody and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) were considered as T1DM. Remaining patients were kept under the unknown category.

Results

Mean age of study subjects was 18.2 ± 7.1 years. Seven percent (7%) of the subjects were classified as DD, 51% as T1DM, 13% as T2DM and 29% were kept under the unknown category. Mean age of subjects with 22.2 ± 9.7, 16.9 ± 6.7, 20.6 ± 7.7 and 19.4 ± 7.4 years in DD, T1DM, T2DM and unknown category respectively. Mean BMI of subjects with DD, T1DM, T2DM and unknown category was 19.8 ± 5.7, 16.6 ± 3.7, 19.3 ± 4.1 and 18.0 ± 4.6 kg/m² respectively.

Conclusion

Double diabetes is an important occurrence among youth onset diabetes subjects. Only half of the subjects with youth onset of diabetes had T1DM.