ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effects of initiating oral-medication and insulin-treatment to residual islet function in adult patients with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA).Methods Fifty nice inpatients and 11 outpatients of LADA were enrolled from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 1981 to October 2014,including 34 cases with initiating insulin therapy and 36 cases with initiating oral medication.Patients were followed up at least twice and with a 6-month interval.The age,body mass index (BMI),diagnosis time,fasting C peptide (FCP),2-hour postprandial C peptide (2 hCP),glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were compared between two groups.Results The age of disease onset in insulin-treatment group was significantly lower than that in oral-medication group (t =2.049,P =0.045).The proportion of patients complicated with other autoimmune diseases in oralmedication group were higher than that in insulin-treatment group [24％ (8/34) vs.47％ (17/36),x2=4.275,P=0.039].The FCP and 2 hCP in insulin-treatment group were significantly higher than those in oral-medication group [FCP:0.25 (0.00-0.80) vs.0.00 (0.00-0.60) μg/L,Z =3.498,P =0.030,2 hCP:0.42(0.02-1.20) vs.0.14(0.02-0.19) μg/L,Z =3.235,P=0.001] on 6 month after treatment;however,there were no significant differences on 6-12 months,13-36 months or 37-60 months after treatment between two groups.No antibody negative conversion was detected in 10 inpatients,who were reexamined with glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody (GADA) more than twice.The detection rate of diabetes retinopathy was 4％ (1/26) in insulin-treatment group and 28％ (8/29) in oralmedication group (x2 =6.179,P =0.013).Conclusion Initiating insulin therapy at first diagnosis of LADA can protect the residual islet function,and may reduce the rate of diabetic retinopathy.