Hyderabad: A new study has revealed that a “genetic risk score” is effective in diagnosing type-1 diabetes in Indians.
The genetic risk score is a summary measure of a set of risk-associated genetic variants.
The score may be used at the time of diabetes diagnosis to help decide if someone has type-1 diabetes, according to the study the findings of which were released on Friday.
The two types follow different treatment regimes with type-1 diabetes needing lifelong insulin injections but type-2 diabetes often being managed with diet or tablet treatment, the study said.
Misclassification of the type of diabetes may lead to sub-standard diabetes care and possible complications. So far, the bulk of research in this field has been conducted in European populations.
A paper published in Scientific Reports said researchers have analyzed whether the European risk score is effective in diagnosing type-1 diabetes in Indians.
The team which got the findings had studied people with diabetes from Pune, India.
The team analyzed 262 people with type-1 diabetes, 352 people with type-2 diabetes, and 334 people without diabetes. All were of Indian (Indo-European) ancestry.
The outcome from the Indian population was compared with those of Europeans, it said. The study was conducted by researchers at the KEM Hospital, Pune, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, and the University of Exeter, UK.
