Adult-onset autoimmune diabetes.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative disease primer and clinical review without systematic review methodology or new empirical human data.
PubMed 36138034 · doi:10.1038/s41572-022-00390-6
What was done
This is a narrative disease primer reviewing the pathophysiology, classification, diagnostic difficulties, and clinical management considerations for adult-onset autoimmune (AOA) diabetes.
What was found
The abstract provides no empirical numbers or quantitative data. It describes AOA diabetes pathophysiology as initiating with immune changes preceding dysglycaemia. Clinical phenotypes range from classic type 1 diabetes with rapid insulin loss to slowly progressing latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA), which is frequently misdiagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Immune markers often lack specificity, and dedicated therapeutic evidence is constrained because most autoimmune disease-modifying trials focus on pediatric onset while non-insulin agents have primarily been studied in type 2 diabetes cohorts.
Why it matters
The review synthesizes the clinical challenges surrounding adult-onset autoimmune diabetes, emphasizing that therapeutic decision-making is hindered by significant disease heterogeneity and a scarcity of dedicated trial evidence.
Limits
The abstract contains no primary data, sample size details, or quantitative synthesis. It is an overview reflecting broad clinical consensus rather than a systematic meta-analysis.
Cited by
- supports Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that is not always present from birth and can be acquired later in life.