Endocrine Abstracts

Prevention of familial diabetes mellitus is a most urgent problem in diabetology. Genetic susceptibility is a leading factor in diabetes mellitus onset.

Aim: The work was initiated to assess potentiality of diabetes mellitus risk prediction based on genealogical analysis.

Materials and methods: For the purpose of the study, 53 patients with diabetes mellitus were examined. The probands’ mean age was 14.4 years. Genealogical medical history was assessed by establishing breeding background with number of generations not less than 3. Index of hereditary burden was calculated as the quotient from total number of diabetes mellitus cases and total number of a proband’s relatives to establish orientation of family medical history by diabetes mellitus. The index of hereditary burden less than 0.4 meant the absence of the hereditary burden by diabetes mellitus.

Results: Clinical-genealogical analysis of breeding background showed hereditary burden by diabetes mellitus in 74.2% of patients examined in the study with index of hereditary burden 0.5. The onset of diabetes mellitus in a proband was determined by the number of his affected relatives. If parents are healthy, the probability ranges from 5 to 10%. Diabetes mellitus in one parent implies its risk in 10–20%. If both parents are diabetic, the risk can increase up to 40%. The disease risk in children of the proband may range by the affection of his parents ranging from 10 to 20%.

Conclusions: Analysis of genealogical tree for patients with diabetes mellitus demonstrated multifactor character of the pathology confirmed by mode inheritance non-conformity with Mendelian laws which are general for the monogenic characters. Type I diabetes mellitus was demonstrated to develop in the offsprings of patients with type II diabetes mellitus which is an activating factor to a mutant gene capable of triggering mechanism for the hereditarily associated diabetes. Thus, clinical genealogical analysis allows identifying groups at higher risk of diabetes mellitus and performing timely interventions.