Monogenic diabetes is a special hereditary form of diabetes, less well known than type 1 and 2. Approximately five percent of diabetes patients in the Czech Republic suffer from this version of the illness, which is normally much easier to treat than other diabetes forms. Backed by a €0.5 million grant from Norway, the University Hospital Motol has purchased laboratory equipment to strengthen the hospital's capacity to treat this patient group.
This form of diabetes is caused by a disorder of a genome, which needs to be identified for the disease to be treated adequately. The grant has been used to acquire equipment that analyses the genomes in order to detect the one genome causing the disease. Prior to the installation of the new equipment, the hospital was only able to test a few patients each week, resulting in long waiting periods and delays in the treatment of children afflicted with the disease. The hospital can now test and administer treatment to a much larger number of patients. In addition to the new equipment, the support will finance the operation of the laboratory for two years.
Monogenic diabetes can in many cases be treated with tablets, rather than the more cumbersome insulin injections that are common for other types of diabetes. The correct diagnostication of the disease will therefore provide a greater quality of life for patients.
The staff of the University Hospital Motol in Prague has great experience with testing and treating diabetes, and is aided in this task by partnerships with health research institutions in Denmark, Norway and Great Britain. Among these are the National Institute of Public Health in Oslo, which has already been involved in cooperation with the Czech hospital for 11 years. The current project at the hospital further develops the collaboration and strengthens the common efforts to prevent and treat diabetes.