TWO CASES OF INSULIN DEPENDENT DIABETES MELLITUS WITH GRAVES' DISEASE

Abstract

Two cases of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus and Graves' disease who have islet cell antibodies (ICA), poor endogenous insulin secretion and no family history of diabetes mellitus were reported. These cases were considered to be polyglandular endocrinopathy type III-a proposed by Neufeld et al. It has been suggested that HLA class II expression may play an important role in the development of both IDDM and Graves' disease. In our cases, they had HLA DRw9 and DR4, respectively, in addition to positive test results for ICA. Therefore it was suggested that there were some common immunological mechanisms in the development of IDDM and Graves' disease.