We would agree with Drs. O'Sullivan and Fajans1 that neither the National Diabetes Data Group nor any other proposals should be accepted uncritically; indeed we have ourselves already entered into the polemic on the subject and we welcome it.2 The proposals will no doubt require modification if and when relevant new data appear. However, the Group's report was the result of a critical review of the unsatisfactory situation concerning, at a certain level, the diagnostic criteria and, at another, the concept of diabetes itself. It took its direction from the availability of new data. Contrary to O'Sullivan and Fajans' statement, the blood glucose levels adopted were based largely on three prospective studies in the United Kingdom, and not on the Pima Indian data, which was regarded as confirming, in a different and special population group studied by different methods, the findings in the United Kingdom.
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Letters to the Editor|
January 01 1981
Classification of Diabetes
Citation
R J Jarrett, H Keen; Classification of Diabetes. Diabetes Care 1 January 1981; 4 (1): 137. https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.4.1.137a
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