Aetiological Diagnosis of Diabetes in Italian Diabetic Children and Adolescents

Similarly to other countries, T1D is the
most frequent diagnosis in Italian diabetic patients !18 years,
while a striking disparity, likely due to different lifestyle and
genetic background, is observed between the rate of T2D of this
study (1.1%, in keeping with European reports of 0.24–1.4%) and
the SEARCH data from US (about 11%). At further variance with
other Western countries (e.g. Norwegian registry, the DPV-Wiss
study, the SEARCH study), the prevalence of MD in Italy is very
high. This could depend on the fact that broader attention is
devoted to MD in Italy than in the US, and also on the fact that
genetic testing is easily accessible and free of charge. The close
follow-up of patients with incidental hyperglycemia likely
accounts for the very high rate of GCK/MODY2 mutations, the
most frequent MODY type in Italy.