Pancreatic volume is reduced in patients with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults

Aims This study aimed to compare pancreatic volume and its clinical significance among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), adult‐onset type 1 DM and latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA). Methods This is a cross‐sectional study. One hundred twenty‐six outpatients (68 with LADA and 58 with type 1 DM) and 158 inpatients (71 with type 2 DM and 87 non‐diabetic controls) were recruited during May–July 2013 in Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital. All the patients underwent abdominal computerized tomography; pancreatic volume was then calculated. Results The mean pancreatic volume was highest in the controls, followed by those in patients with type 2 DM, LADA and type 1 DM. The pancreatic volume in LADA was comparable with that in type 2 DM but significantly greater than that in type 1 DM ( p  < 0.05). The pancreatic volume in patients with LADA was significantly correlated with sex, waist circumference, body surface area, body mass index, diastolic blood pressure and high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (all p  < 0.05). The correlation between pancreatic volume and fasting C‐peptide was high in patients with LADA ( r  = 0.643, p  < 0.001) and moderate in patients with type 2 DM ( r  = 0.467, p  < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for pancreatic volume predictive of absolute insulin deficiency (FCP < 0.9 ng/mL) was 0.85 (0.76–0.94) in LADA. Conclusions Pancreatic atrophy in LADA was less marked than in type 1 DM. Pancreatic atrophy may suggest reduced level of fasting C‐peptide in patients with LADA. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.