Abstract
We evaluated 91 newly diagnosed IDDM children mean age 7.8 ± 4.5 yrs; 56.7% had had an upper respiratory infection prior to diagnosis and 12.7% had had either mumps or varicella. Peak incidence of disease was found in February and March and August to October. Eighty seven percent had HLA-DR3 and/or DR4 vs 37% of the Venezuelan general population; 81.6% were HLA-DQW2 and/or HLA-DQW8. Studies of oligonucieotid hybridization showed the presence of arginine in position 52 of the DQ alpha chain and absence of aspartic acid in position 57 of the DQ beta chain, with an increased prevalence of DR2 and especially with DQB1 0602 which has been associated with protection. We found 55.9% to have positive islet cell antibodies (ICA) with 4 of these having a positive complement fixation test. Three patients (7.9%) were found to have positive insulin autoantibodies. No positive serotypes for enterovirus (Coxsackie-B) were found in our patients, but we detected 11 cases with elevated titers for cytomegalovirus antibodies. Positive antibodies for measles, mumps, herpes and varicella were found in some children. This study contributes to a better understanding of the epidemiology and immunogenetics of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in Latin-American children.
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Gunczler, P., Lanes, R., Layrisse, Z. et al. EPIDEMIOLOGY AND IMMUNOGENETICS OF INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES MELLITUS IN VENEZUELAN CHILDREN. Pediatr Res 38, 626 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199510000-00058
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199510000-00058