ground : Diabetes mellitus is one of the major health problms in Korea. It has been suggested that there are quite many atypical IDDM patients who initially manifest as NIDDM,
but require insulun eventually. However, little is known about the clinical characteristics of
this type of diabetics in Korea. This study was undertaken to find out how many current
IDDM patients had a history of noninsulin requiring phase..
Methods : We obtained medical histories retrospectively from 2300 patients who visited
Asan Medical Center from June 1989 to July 1992. Fifty nine patients were classified as
IDDM because their fasting plasma C-peptide levels were below 0.13 fmol/L(0.4 ng/ml). The
patients were classified further into the two groups: group A who required insulin within 1
year after diagnosis or presented as debut DKA, and group B who had noninsulin requiring
phase at least for 1 year after the diagnosis.
Results : Twenty six patients (44%) were classified as group A, and 27 patients (46%) as
group B. Median age of onset was 26 years in group A, (range; 10-50) and 45 (range; 23-73)
in group B. As a whole, 24 patients (41 percent) were diagnosed as diabetes over the age of
40. Two groups had similar values in body mass index. History of DKA was found in 58
pecent in group A and 7 percent in group B. All patients of group A were using insulin at
the time of the study, while only 56 percent of group B were using insulin.
Conculsion : Our study showed: first, forty percent of IDDM patients developed their
diabetes at the age over 40: second, about half of the patients had a non-insulin-requiring
phase at least for on year. The lack of DKA, old age of onset, and the intial
non-insulin-requiring phase suggest that these patients are different from the typical IDDM.
This subclas of IDDM in Korea may be classified as slowly progressive IDDM.
|