September 18, 2017 – Type 1 Screening

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Anchor lead: Should everyone be screened for type 1 diabetes? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Type 1 diabetes, where the body attacks its own insulin producing cells, seems to be increasing in incidence worldwide, pointing to the need to screen children for the condition. Now a need blood test developed by Dax Fu, a physiology expert at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, may help.

Fu: If we could detect the disease earlier then we have a long time to find out ways to prevent or delay the occurrence of the type 1 diabetes.   :10

Fu says the test relies on the presence of proteins in the blood that point to type 1 diabetes, and that these may be present 10 years before the condition is actually manifest.

Fu: Right now the current screenings can only be used in the hospital for people who have a high risk of type 1 however in the past few years the percentage has increased by 1 or 2% every year.  :11

Fu hopes that combining existing technology with that developed for this test will enable screening to be 99 percent accurate in identifying type 1 diabetes. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.