Bengaluru: Rare form of diabetes leads to wrong diagnosis by doctors

Bengaluru: A rare form of diabetes – maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is different from both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, it’s often misdiagnosed as either of them, leading to treatments that are not required.

The Madras Diabetes Research Foundation has received around 100 cases for suspected MODY patients. Of these, some 20 cases were referred from Bengaluru, which has one of the two labs that conduct the MODY test in the country, the other being at CMC Vellore.

"Many patients with MODY are misdiagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes and the treatment is given accordingly. The problem is that Metformin is used to treat people with type 2 diabetes, which decreases insulin resistance and improves insulin sensitivity. For MODY, Sulfonylurea compounds are given, which work on insulin secretion defects," explains Dr V Mohan, Chairman and Chief Diabetologist at Dr Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre, which is a WHO Collaborating Centre for Non-communicable Diseases (Prevention and Control). He is also the director of Madras Diabetes Research Foundation.

Since MODY runs in families because of a change in a single gene which is passed on by affected parents to their children, it is also known as ‘Autosomal Dominant Inheritance.’ All children of an affected parent with MODY have a 50% chance of inheriting the affected gene.

"Many times children and teenagers are told by the diabetologost that they need life-long insulin. After genetic testing for MODY they are taken off insulin and put on tablets. So patients can avoid life-long injections," he explains.

The doctor also adds that now in 2-3 weeks all the MODY genes can be screened from 1-13, using the MODY panel developed by his team in collaboration with Medgenom.

"MODY genes have one major thing in common - they are ‘monogenic’, which means that you only need to inherit one copy of the gene to display the disorder that the gene causes. As there is a 50% chance of a parent passing on MODY to a child, it becomes important for the MODY test to make sure you get the right treatment and advice is given for that type of diabetes like stopping insulin," he said.