Latest Diabetes Classification to Help Doctor Determine Precise Treatment Plan
28/06/2023
Diabetes is one of the major chronic diseases in Hong Kong. At present, more than 700,000 people suffer from diabetes, i.e. one in every ten people. Although diabetes is generally incurable, you can live with it for the rest of your life without complications if it is well controlled. As we all know, diabetes is mainly divided into type 1 and type 2, but did you know that this classification method is too rough and leads to delay in treatment? Recently, experts have studied and advocated the classification of diabetes into 5 types, aiming to provide more precise and personalized treatment for patients.
Traditional Diabetes Classification is Rough and Cause Treatment Delay
For a long time, diabetes is mainly divided into type 1 and type 2 in clinical aspect.
However, this classification method is too rough and general, resulting in a bias to distinguish the type of diabetes by the age of the patient. Diabetes is a complex chronic disease which is caused by different factors, and treatment methods are different for different causes. Therefore, if diabetes is not accurately classified, or the type of diabetes is wrongly diagnosed, it will greatly delay the treatment, accelerated and exacerbated the occurrence of complications.
The New 5 Types of Diabetes and its Treatment Method
A research report published in “The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology” by the Lund University Diabetes Centre in Sweden and Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland have proposed to re-classify diabetes into five types, according to the different pathogenic factors of different diabetes patients (such as islet cell autoantibodies, insulin secretion, insulin resistance, BMI and age etc.):
* The above listed are the main diabetes treatment methods. Actual treatment plans need to be determined by the doctor.
Know more about insulin deficiency and insulin resistance.
Know more about some non-common types of diabetes - Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) & Monogenic Daibetes
The Importance of Accurate Classification for Diabetes Treatment
A study in the UK indicated that 38% of patients with type 1 diabetes diagnosed after the age of 30 were misdiagnosed as type 2 diabetes, which prevented them from receiving correct treatment. They should be treated with insulin, but received oral medication due to misdiagnosis, making diabetes treatment less effective and more likely to cause diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Incorrect diabetes treatment causes patients to miss the golden time to control the disease and increases the risk of various complications, such as cardiovascular disease, retinopathy, chronic kidney disease, peripheral neuropathy and foot disease etc. In addition, it will also weaken the β-cell function and leads to treatment upgrade in the future.
According to another study, in the same group of diabetes patients, the traditional diabetes classification method can only distinguish 1.2-6.4% of insulin deficient patients, while the new method can distinguish 23.9% of insulin deficient patients (17.5% SIDD patients and 6.4% SAID patients). Therefore, accurate diabetes classification plays an important role in diabetes treatment planning, helping patients to prescribe the correct treatment method as soon as possible to effectively control diabetes and delay the onset of complications.
Identify your Type of Diabetes to Determine a Personalized Precise Treatment Plan
As an expert in diabetes testing, GemVCare understands the needs of people with diabetes. We offer BChealth – a diabetes classification test. By detecting C-peptide and islet cell antibodies level, and calculating insulin resistance and islet β-cell function index, it can accurately classify your diabetes types and help doctors determine different treatment plans according to patients’ needs. Treatment options including insulin injections, different types of oral drugs and weight control, etc. Click here to learn more details about BChealth.
In addition, we have DProtect® which is specially designed for people with diabetes. It combines genetic and health data to assess the risk of developing diabetes complications. It also predicts the effect of early insulin therapy, pharmacogenetics and different diabetes treatment options. Doctors can design personalized healthcare plans for patients based on the test results to help patients manage diabetes and delay the onset of complications. Click here to learn more details about DProtect®.
For further information or inquiries about our diabetes tests, please click the button on the bottom right to send us a WhatsApp message.