Progression to insulin deficiency in Korean patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus positive for anti‐GAD antibody

AIMS: To investigate the rate of progression to insulin deficiency in Korean patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus positive for anti-GAD antibody (GADA) and to determine the factors related to progression to insulin deficiency. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed data on 87 GADA-positive and 87 age- and sex-matched GADA-negative patients with Type 2 diabetes. GADA-positive patients were further subclassified into high-titre (≥ 250 WHO units/ml) (n = 24) and low-titre (< 250 WHO units/ml) (n = 63) subgroups. Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to identify factors associated with progression to insulin deficiency. RESULTS: Over a period of 6 years, two of 87 (2.3%) GADA-negative and 37 of 87 (42.5%) GADA-positive patients had progressed to insulin deficiency. The rate of progression to insulin deficiency was higher in the high-titre than in the low-titre subgroup (75.0 vs. 30.2%). Multivariate analysis in GADA-positive patients showed that high-titre GADA and low BMI at diagnosis were independent factors significantly related to progression to insulin deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of GADA predicted the progression to insulin deficiency in Korean patients with Type 2 diabetes. In GADA-positive patients, high-titre GADA and low BMI were associated with this progression.