Prospective evaluation of β-cell function in insulin antoantibody-positive relatives of insulin-dependent diabetic patients
During the preclinical period of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), progression to clinical IDDM is characterized by declining β-cell function. Although the presence of insulin autoantibodies (IAA) improves the ability of islet cell antibodies (ICA) to predict subsequent clinical IDDM, few studies have examined the risk of developing IDDM in subjects positive for IAA but negative for both