Was my mother a Type 1 or Type 2?

[Carina1962]

Although there is a strong family history of diabetes on my mother's side, I am wondering whether my mother was a Type 1 or Type 2 diabetic. She contracted pancreatitis which hospitalised her for over a week and when she came out of hospital she was told she had become diabetic and had to inject insulin straight away so was she a Type 1 or a Type 2?

 

[Northerner]

It sounds like the pancreatitis destroyed her beta cells, so she became effectively a Type 1, just as someone who has their pancreas removed is like a Type 1 (with bells on!). Normal route to becoming Type 1 is an autoimmune attack killing off the beta cells. Type 2, on the other hand, comes about through insulin resistance, which can be due to a variety of factors, including long term steroid use. The difference would be that the pancreas would still be producing insulin, but the body can't use it properly.

 

[HelenM]

She contracted pancreatitis which hospitalised her for over a week and when she came out of hospital she was told she had become diabetic and had to inject insulin straight away so was she a Type 1 or a Type 2?

In practice she was treated as a T1.
In theory she was an 'other' type of diabetes. Pancreatic diabetes is called in the research papers Type 3c. as here
Is Pancreatic Diabetes (Type 3c Diabetes) Underdiagnosed and Misdiagnosed?
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/31/Supplement_2/S165.full

The reason for T3 is that the original recommendation from the World Health Organisation that gave todays designations ie the well known T1, T2 and gestational also included a table of other types.
This was table 3; pancreatic diabetes was in section c. so
III. Other specific types....
C. Diseases of the exocrine pancreas
1. Pancreatitis
2. Trauma/pancreatectomy....

There are many different types with sections from A (MODY)-H ( a group of quite rare genetic syndromes)
see http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/35/Supplement_1/S64.full.pdf
It's a hobby horse of mine, diabetes comes in far more than 2 flavours.

 

[Northerner]

Love your research skills Helen! 🙂

 

[HOBIE]

Well explained Helen. You learn somthing new every day !