HLA genotyping supports a nonautoimmune etiology in patients diagnosed with diabetes under the age of 6 months

Children with permanent diabetes are usually assumed to have type 1 diabetes. It has recently been shown that there are genetic subgroups of diabetes that are often diagnosed during the neonatal period but may present later. A recent Italian study proposed that type diabetes is rare before 6 months of age. We aimed to examine genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes in patients diagnosed with diabetes before the age of 2 years. We analyzed HLA class II genotypes, markers of autoimmune diabetes, in 187 children with permanent diabetes diagnosed at
Appropriate treatment regimens for diabetes require accurate characterization of disease (1). For patients diagnosed in infancy, this may be complicated; several different etiologies may cause diabetes, including type 1 diabetes [...]