Thanks to a decade-long, multi-organization collaboration, a new publication aims to examine how insulin deficiency can impact the size of a pancreas.
“Insulin Deficiency From Insulin Gene Mutation Leads to Smaller Pancreas” was recently published in Diabetes Care, and used MRI to measure pancreas volume and shape in a family with an autosomal-dominant insulin gene mutation that results in insulin deficiency similar in severity to that of type 1 diabetes but without autoimmunity.
Melissa Hilmes, MD, Associate Professor of Radiology and Pediatrics, was a co-author on this publication, joining other departments from Vanderbilt and across the country to identify these markers of insulin deficiency.
Sumit Pruthi, MBBS, Section Chief of Pediatric Radiology, has watched Dr. Hilmes work for many years and says this new publication is a continuation of Dr. Hilmes’ dedicated work in diabetes research. She has spent the last decade working with this group of medical professionals and contributing to this study, reading nearly 1,000 pancreas scans.
“Dr. Hilmes started a long collaboration in 2013 with Dr. Jack Virostko of the Institute of Imaging Science and the Diabetes Team with Al Powers, MD, Dan Moore, PhD, MD, and Bill Russell, MD,” says Dr. Pruthi. “It began as a retrospective study, looking at the pancreas on CT and MR in Vanderbilt patients with type 1 diabetes and trying to make observations and measure the size of the pancreas compared to age-matched controls. It was observed that patients with type 1 diabetes have a smaller pancreas.”
According to Dr. Pruthi, this observation led to a study following 50 newly diagnosed patients, supported by funding from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This work was published in Diabetes Care in 2019. With further support from JDRF, the study expanded to a multi-site prospective trial aiming to replicate these findings and imaging people at risk for type 1 diabetes to try to predict the development of diabetes and predict a decline in pancreas size and function.
Along with patients from various sites, the team of doctors who worked on this study were from multiple institutions, including Vanderbilt University and VUMC, the University of Chicago, VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, and the University of Texas.
