Q: Which specialist should I consult for ruling out pancreatogenic diabetes or type 3c diabetes?
A: Your general practitioner or family physician will refer you to a diabetologist for further evaluation if he suspects there may be a pancreatic cause for your diabetes.
Q: What is meant by prediabetes?
A: Prediabetes is also referred to as impaired glucose tolerance. Blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to make a diagnosis of diabetes. Patients are usually asymptomatic and the condition may be detected during routine blood tests.
Q: Why is type 3c diabetes often misdiagnosed?
A: Unfortunately studies suggest that only 3 percent of patients with type 3c diabetes receive the correct diagnosis. The time taken for persons with primary disorder of the exocrine pancreas to develop diabetes is often quite long, up to 10 years in some cases. This may be one of the reasons why the association to the pancreatic disease is missed and often misdiagnosed.
Q: Why is it important to diagnose type 3c diabetes correctly?
A: Most type 3c diabetes patients require insulin to control the symptoms. Oral agents such as gliclazide often used in type 2 diabetes patients are ineffective in controlling the symptoms of type 3c diabetes and expose the person to the dangers of high blood glucose levels.
Q: Why is hypoglycemia common in type 3c diabetes patients?
A: Release of glucagon from pancreatic á-cells is also diminished in this condition, causing recurrent episodes of severe hypoglycemia in some persons. Failure to recognize this phenomenon may result in ineffective and suboptimal treatment.
Q: Why are oral antihyperglycemic agents used in type 2 diabetes harmful in type 3c diabetes?
A: Newer incretin-based oral agents, such as glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists ("incretins") and dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors (“gliptins”), are not recommended due to the presence of pancreatic damage seen in type 3c patients. Such patients will be wrongly labeled as being poorly compliant when they are misclassified as type 2 diabetics and do not respond to oral antihyperglycemic drugs.
