Trends in acute poisoning in a District Medical Unit.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C J McCallum.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
20 out of 179 diabetics treated with oral hypoglycaemic agents (O.H.A.) within 3 mo of diagnosis had pancreatic-islet-cell antibodies (ICAb) in their sera at diagnosis or later. 13 of these 20, compared with only 14 of the remaining 159, subsequently required insulin at a mean follow-up of 2 yr 10 mo and 4 yr 11 mo, respectively (p less than 10(-7)). 5 of the 7 ICAb-positive diabetics still continuing on O.H.A. therapy after a mean follow-up of 4 yr 6 mo required maximum or near-maximum combined oral therapy, while only 34 of the 145 ICAb-negative diabetics continuing on O.H.A. did so at a mean follow-up of 5 yr 4 mo (p less than 0.02). In addition, 81 diabetics treated initially with diet for a mean time of 4 yr 7 mo before going on to O.H.A. therapy were studied. All were ICAb-negative when tested at a mean interval of 6 yr 10 mo from diagnosis. By the end of the mean follow-up period of 10 yr 3 mo, 27 were on combined oral therapy and 3 had been transferred to insulin treatment. ICAb-positive diabetics on O.H.A. had a high prevalence of a personal history of organ-specific autoimmune disease, thyrogastric antibodies, a family history of insulin-dependent diabetes and possibly of HLA-B8 comparable to that in insulin-dependent diabetes and higher than that expected in a control population or in diabetics controlled by diet alone. We believe that ICAb-positive diabetes controlled by O.H.A. is an earlier stage in the same disease process (type-I diabetes) that culminates in insulin-dependency.
In a study of 972 patients with diabetes mellitus, humoral pancreatic islet-cell antibodies (I.C.Ab.) were detected in highest prevalence in insulin-treated diabetics with (38 per cent) and without (22 per cent) associated overt organ-specific autoimmune disease (A.I.D.) where consideration was not given to the duration of diabetes. They were also detected in 8 per cent of diabetics treated with oral hypoglycemic agents (O.H.A.), but not in diabetics requiring diet alone and in only 0.5 per cent of 434 control subjects. Six per cent of 522 patients with overt organ-specific A.I.D. but not diagnosed to be diabetic had I.C.Ab.s. I.C.Ab.s were present in the sera of 2 per cent of 157 first-degree relatives of I.C.Ab.-positive subjects. In insulin-treated diabetics and, to a lesser extent, in diabetics not requiring insulin, the prevalence of humoral I.C.Ab. was strongly dependent of the duration of the diabetes, being 60 per cent during the first year from diagnosis in the insulin-treated group and falling to 20 per cent at two to five years and to 5 per cent at 10-20 years. The prevalence of I.C.Ab. in insulin-treated diabetics showed no correlation with the patient's age at the time of testing when the duration of diabetes was taken into account. Diabetics who did not require insulin for treatment but who were I.C.Ab.-positive showed a significant tendency to subsequently require insulin and to have a higher prevalence of other autoantibodies than insulin-independent diabetics who were I.C.Ab.-negative. Persistence of I.C.Ab. for more than five years from diagnosis of diabetes was associated with coexistent overt organ-specific A.I.D. and with HLA-B8, A1, and A1 + B8.
In a baby born to a mother who had idiopathic (autoimmune) Addison's disease and gestational insulin-dependent diabetes, antibodies to adrenal cortex and to pancreatic islet cells were demonstrated in the cord blood and serum for at least 41 days. There was no clinical or objective evidence of adrenocortical failure or of disturbed carbohydrate tolerance in the baby.
Pancreatic islet-cell antibodies (I.C.Ab) were detected in 31 patients with organ-specific autoimmune disorders, 4 first-degree relatives of I.C.Ab-positive diabetics, and 1 apparently normal subject, none of whom had clinical evidence of diabetes. 10 of these 36 subjects were found to have diabetic glucose-tolerance tests (G.T.T.S), 4 had lag storage, and 22 had normal G.T.T.S.2 had latent diabetes, as evidenced by diabetic G.T.T.S during pregnancy and thyrotoxicosis; another 2 subsequently developed insulin-dependent diabetes (I.D.D.) Serum from 26 subjects had been stored for 1-11 yr before the G.T.T.S were done. The titres in some were shown to rise and fall over the years, while in others they remained remarkably constant. There was no correlation between the titre, change in titre or the duration of I.C.Ab or the presence of HLA-B8, BW15, or CW3 and the result of the G.T.T. In addition to acting as a marker for asymptomatic and latent diabetes and prediabetes, it seems that the presence of I.C.Ab in the serum may define a new group of potential diabetics with normal G.T.T.S. Many such subjects have one or more organ-specific autoimmune disorders (irrespective of diabetic family history), but some are first-degree relatives of I.C.Ab-positive subjects (mainly I.D.D.). About 0-5% of the general population also have I.C.Ab in their serum.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.