High level of blood glucose is the first test with the random blood glucose test, fasting blood glucose test, and or oral glucose tolerance test.
It only helps to diagnose diabetes that is the condition with a high blood glucose/sugar level. After that, how do we differentiate between diabetes type 1 & 2?
Diagnosing Type 1 Diabetes
Confirm the type 1 diabetes with an autoantibody testing; they are:
- Islet cell cytoplasmic auto-antibodies
- Glutamic acid decarboxylase auto-antibodies
- Insulinoma-associated-2 auto-antibodies
- Insulin Auto-antibodies
Islet cell cytoplasmic auto-antibodies test
This test helps to measure islet-cell autoantibodies that attack against a variety of islet cell proteins. It is most commonly detected among newly diagnosed diabetes type 1, almost detected in about 80% of type 1 diabetes.
Glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies test
This test helps to measure autoantibodies that attack against beta-cell proteins (antigen) still it is not that much specific to beta cells. It is also most commonly detected among newly diagnosed diabetes type 1, almost detected in about 75% of type 1 diabetes.
Insulinoma-Associated 2 autoantibodies test
This test also measures autoantibodies attacking against beta cell antigens, but it is not specific, still detects in about 60% of type 1 diabetes.
Insulin Auto-antibodies test
This test measures autoantibody is targeting against insulin; this is an antigen considered more specific to beta cells.
To confirm the diabetes type, an expert suggests a combination of the above-said autoantibody tests for newly diagnosed diabetes, to distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.