Autoantibodies associated with type 1 diabetes (T1D), celiac disease (CD), and autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) were detected in 9.3% of Swedish schoolchildren, and 1.5% were subsequently diagnosed with one of the diseases.
Both autoimmunity and screening-detected diagnosis were more common in children with a first degree relative (FDR) with T1D, CD, or AITD, but in half of these children the autoantibody positivity or diagnosis detected in the child differed from the diagnosis reported in the FDR, confirming the overlap of the three diseases within families. However, limiting screening to FDRs will miss most children with increased risk of disease.
Home capillary sampling has the potential to be used for large-scale screenings, but the diagnostic accuracy of new multiplex assays requiring a very small volume of blood, and the safety and tolerability of self-collected samples, must be further studied before it can be implemented in large-scale population-based screenings.
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