State-of-the-art. In order to understand thepotential role of environmental factors in the causation of IDDM, a prevalence study of the disease has been carried out in a Sardinian population, which migrated from the Island to Pavia (an Italian town in Lombardy). A postal questionnaire has been sent to all the 2,252 Sardinian people living in the town, and a telephone call has been made in the non-responder cases. Through the survey, we have identified 10 patients with IDDM (prevalence = 4.4/1000). Three of them (mean age 14±2 SD years), became diabetic while still living in Sardinia and the remaining 7 (mean age 32.8±8.2 DS years) developed the disease after the time of the emigration to the mainland. These preliminary data showed that prevalence of IDDM in the Sardinian emigrants is still higher compared to the general population of the same geographical area, and, interestingly, that the age of onset of the disease seems to be delayed in the individuals who became diabetic after the emigration compared with the ones who live in the Island (Tenconi MT et al, Il Diabete, 1998; 10(S1):61).

Future perspectives. It is programmed a ‘wet’ phase, where the entire cohort will be tested for immunological e genetic markers of IDDM.