About Type 1 diabetes

This results from the pancreas’ failure to produce enough insulin. This was previously referred to as “Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus” or “juvenile diabetes”. This form of diabetes, which accounts for only 5–10% of those with diabetes, (insulin-dependent diabetes) type I diabetes, or juvenile-onset diabetes, results from a cellular-mediated autoimmune destruction of the β-cells of the pancreas. In this form of diabetes, the rate of β-cell destruction is quite variable, being rapid in some individuals (mainly infants and children) and slow in others (mainly adults). Some patients, particularly children and adolescents, may present with ketoacidosis as the first manifestation of the disease. Others have modest fasting hyperglycemia that can rapidly change to severe hyperglycemia and/or ketoacidosis in the presence of infection or other stress. In this type there is little or no insulin secretion, as manifested by low or undetectable levels of plasma C-peptide. Immune-mediated diabetes commonly occurs in childhood and adolescence, but it can occur at any age, even in the 8th and 9th decades of life.