The incidence of Type 1 diabetes in Kuwait is high compared with the neighbouring Arab countries, and it appears to be increasing as in many European populations.

The prevalence of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DQB1 and DQA1 alleles has been determined in 78 Kuwaiti Arab children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and in 57 normal healthy controls with similar ethnic background. The typing of HLA-DQ alleles was carried out using an allele-specific DNA-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) SSP method. DR typing was also performed in 212 control subjects using PCR-SSP (sequence specific primer) method. A significantly higher frequency of DQB1*0201 allele was found in IDDM cases compared to the controls (p<0.001). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of DQB1 alleles *0302, *0501, and *0602 between IDDM cases and the controls. In contrast, DQB1 alleles *0301, *0402, *0502, *0602, and *0603 were represented at a somewhat higher frequency in controls compared to the IDDM cohort. The frequency of DQA1 allele *0301, which encode for an Arg at codon 52, was significantly higher in the IDDM patients compared to the controls (p<0.001). The frequency of DQA1 allele *0302 was also higher in IDDM cases than controls (p = 0.034) but the difference was less pronounced than DQA1*0301. Amongst the Arg52 alleles, no significant difference was detected in the frequency of *0401 between IDDM cases and the controls and the allele *0501 was detected only in controls. For non-Arg52 alleles *0103, *0104, and *0201, the differences in the two groups were not significant, with the exception of allele *0104 (p = 0.024). DR3 was the most common type in the Kuwaiti general population (28%) and DRB1*0301 was detected in 41% of the individuals with DR3 specificity. Analysis of HLA-DQBI/DQA1 haplotypes from IDDM cases and controls revealed a significantly high frequency of haplotype DQA1*0301/DQB1*0201 between Kuwaiti IDDM cases (49/78, 63%) and the controls (8/57, 14%).

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Objective: To investigate the prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity among children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in Kuwait. Subjects and Methods: Ina mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal study,anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (anti-TG) were measured in 232 subjects (118 males and 114 females) with type 1 diabetes. Results: The mean age of the total study population was 10.9 ± 3.6 years (range 1-21), and the median diabetes duration was 3.9 years (range 0-16). At the initial screening, 57 out of 232 (24.6%) patients had positive antibodies, and of the remaining 175 patients, who were antibody negative,131 (74.3%) were followed up for 4-9 years. 23 out of these 131 (17.7%) patients became antibody positive, with a cumulative prevalence of elevated antibodies of 34.5%. Anti-TPO was present in 34 (14.7%), anti-TG in 23 (9.9%) and both antibodies in 23 (9.9%) patients. Thyroid antibodies presented early within the first 5 years of the onset of diabetes (63.2 vs. 36.8%, p < 0.05). The prevalence of elevated thyroid antibodies increased after the onset of puberty in both females and males (p < 0.0001). A total of 58.7% of the patients with positive antibodies were females compared to 41% males (p < 0.0001). The basal thyroid-stimulating hormone was higher in subjects with positive antibodies (5.1 ± 10.7 mIU/l) compared to those who were antibody negative (1.79 ± 0.87 mIU/l, p < 0.001). Furthermore, 30 out of 232 (12.9%) patients developed thyroid dysfunction. Conclusion: In this study, a high prevalence of thyroid autoimmune antibodies was found in patients either at the onset of type 1 diabetes or within the 4-9 years of follow-up.