Identification of a distinct phenotype of elderly latent autoimmune diabetes in adults: LADA China Study 8

摘要

Diabetes has become a serious urgent public health problem in China at present. One out of every 10 Chinese suffers from diabetes, and China has more than 100 million of adults with diabetes, which is more than any other country in the world.1 Latent autoimmune diabetes in adult (LADA) is defined as initially noninsulin requiring diabetes with associated autoantibodies like glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody (GADA) and so on. Patients with LADA are at high risk of progression to insulin dependency.2 LADA accounts for 2.6% to 12% of all patients with diabetes, which differs significantly in different ethnic groups.3-6 Our previous study has shown that around 5.9% of diabetic patients were classified as LADA in China.7 According to the population epidemiological survey, it can be speculated that China has the largest number of LADA patients, which are more than 6 million.8 Because of its high prevalence, LADA represents an important clinical issue that should need to be further addressed.