negative - gad65 antibodies and islet cell antibody

[PRANAY]

my son 10 years old has been diagnosed with juvinile diabeties.
however the GAD65 antibodies , islet cell antibody, anti endomsial  antibody  - have all come out as negative.

does it give hope that the pancreas - would still produce insulin and my son can recover ?

are there any further tests which can be done - to help determine his condition ?

[mikeviles]

I don't want to hold out false hope for you but I caught this article recently:

http://www.jdrf.org/files/Research/FY_07/000ChiTrib91106.pdf

This form of diabetes is apparently very rare but may result in the type 1 symptoms without the immune system markers. It may be worth talking to your doctor about. I think this mutation manifests itself very early on (in newborns) so is even more unlikely in a 10 year old. It just an example that shows diabetes is a complex condition and may be many different diseases with similar symptoms. We always have treated it as just two diseases (type I and type II) but that appears to be an oversimplification.

In the end, Type I is not so terrible. I was also diagnosed at 10 years with Type I. That was 31 years ago and I am perfectly healthy. Today we have a lot more tools to work with to keep things in control and that is accelerating. A cure at this point would improve my life somewhat but not radically.

[JDRF-Team-JW]

Hi Pranay,

I'm sorry to hear of your son's diagnosis. It is never easy for parents to deal with any health issue concerning their children and I can understand the determination to find out as much as possible and question everything in trying to help your child.

We are not medical professionals on this forum but folks dealing with Type I diabetes, so any advice or opinion should be checked out with a doctor.

If your son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes (Type I) it would mean his diabetes (at least in this day and age) is irreversible, unlike Type II diabetes which can be controlled by diet and excercise, without the need of insulin. If your son has all the symptoms of Type I diabetes and the doctors diagnosed him as such, I'm not sure if there are tests that can disprove their diagnosis. The GAD, islet cell and endomysial antibodies tests you have mentioned don't always indicate whether or not someone is diabetic. I have to say I don't know too much about it but, in the case of endomysial antibodies, for example, I believe their presence might signify Celiac disease, which is also associated with diabetics. There is an article you may want to check out, which is a study on the above mentioned antibodies, entitled: " The Role of Autoimmunity at Diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes in the Development of Thyroid and Celiac Disease and Microvascular Complications". It's a professional article (very scientific) and the full text is available from this link: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/28/9/2170

Have you spoken to your son's doctor about explaining the tests and the possibility your son might have been misdiagnosed? I wish I could give you a better answer but I simply don't have the expertise. Good luck to you and take care.