TEDDY-Screening

Screening

TEDDY is a two part study. The first phase, screening, is testing blood from newborns less than three months old for genes associated with type 1 diabetes that put them at higher risk of developing the disease. The blood is usually obtained from the umbilical cord at the time of birth, but can also be collected before three months of age by heel stick.

Screening currently takes place at ten Denver-area hospitals, as well as the Barbara Davis Center TEDDY clinic. We will most likely be expanding to even more hospitals in the near future.

Click here to see which hospitals are participating in TEDDY screening.

Who is Eligible for TEDDY Screening?

TEDDY is recruiting two different types of newborns for screening:

General Population: These children have no family history of type 1 diabetes. Our goal is to screen 40,000 general population newborns. The newborns screened will be representative of the general population of the Denver Metropolitan Area. Approximately 2,200 or 5.5%, of the newborns will have the genes that are linked to type 1 diabetes, putting them at a higher risk of developing the disease.

First-Degree Relatives: Young siblings and offspring of persons with type 1 diabetes will be recruited from families of diabetic children seen in the Barbara Davis Center or The Children's Hospital in Denver; families of diabetic children identified by the Colorado IDDM Registry and more recently the SEARCH project, and media publicity. In addition, some of the newborns screened at the Denver-area hospitals will have a parent or sibling with type 1 and will be recruited into this group. Approximately 30% of first degree relatives are expected to have the higher risk genes.

Children with the higher risk genes are eligible for the follow-up portion of the study and must be enrolled by the time they are 4.5 months old. Click here to learn more about followup.