A BSTRACT Introduction: Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA), also known as Type 1.5 diabetes, is often misdiagnosed because of a lack of both awareness and standardized diagnostic criteria. We investigated the disease characteristics of LADA and determined different biochemical parameters that may indicate long-term glycemic control and associations with chronic diseases. Method: This was a cross-sectional study of all LADA cases seen between January 2022 and July 2025 at our institution. We included all adult patients aged 30 years and above, collected and analyzed the demographics, clinical, and laboratory parameters. Result: One hundred and forty-eight patients were included in the study, 89 (60.1%) males and 59 (39.9%) females, mean age was 38.15 ± 6.3 years. Glycemic control was recorded in 34 (23.0%) patients. Thirty-seven patients (25.0%) had obesity, 41 (27.7%) were hypertensive and 35 (23.6%) had hypothyroidism. Female patients had significantly higher median level of urine albumin, and higher mean BMI. Hypothyroidism and obesity were significantly more prevalent among female patients than males. Patients with uncontrolled glycemia had higher prevalence of obesity and elevated LDL. Conclusion: In this Saudi population, the prevalence of glycemic control in LADA patients is low. Some patients may have normal FBS and HbA1c levels. Obesity may not always be present, and patients can be lean to obese. Hypothyroidism in LADA were more common in older and female patients. We cannot rule out the role of ethnicity and race because of the genetic, environmental, and lifestyle variables that were not considered.
Aldrees et al. (2026) studied this question.