Clinical characteristics of patients aged 65 and older with newly developed type 1 diabetes: An analysis of elderly patients at our hospital.

ABSTRACT

AIM: We herein investigated the clinical features of elderly patients with newly developed type 1 diabetes with respect to onset age, frequency of islet-associated antibodies, and other clinical markers. METHODS: One hundred and ninety-nine patients aged 65 and older with new-onset diabetes, who were admitted to our hospital between July 2000 and June 2013, were classified into 4 types of diabetes. In addition, 85 patients with newly diagnosed type 1A diabetes among all age ranges admitted during the same period were divided into two groups a younger group (less than 65 years, n=71) and an elderly group (65 years and older, n=14). Clinical features including mode of onset, frequency of islet-associated antibodies, and serum C-peptide (CPR) levels were compared between these groups. The elderly group was further divided into two age groups (less than 75 years, n=7; 75 years and older, n=7), and the frequency of autoantibodies was compared. RESULTS: The patients (n=199) were classified into type 1 (n=16, 8%), type 2 (n=155, 78%), pancreatic (n=22, 11%), and other type (n=6, 3%) diabetes. Between the younger and elderly groups with type 1 diabetes, no significant difference in the CPR levels, frequency of autoantibodies, or other clinical features were observed. Positivity for IA-2 antibody was higher in the younger group (53.5%) than in the elderly group (35.7%), however, it was also considerably high (57.1%) in the oldest age group (75 years and older). CONCLUSIONS: Type 1 diabetes may develop in the elderly, and an IA-2 antibody test may be useful for diagnosing type 1 diabetes in older patients.