Predicting diabetes early to improve treatment
Researchers have discovered that glucose and insulin levels change in the body up to three years prior to the condition developing. The findings have implications for the early detection of type 2 diabetes, which is growing among previously less-affected sections of the population.
The Medical Research Council-funded research project followed 6,538 British civil servants for over eight years in order to characterize the levels of glucose, insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion in individuals who then went on to develop type 2 diabetes. Of the 6,538 who started on the project, 505 diabetes cases were diagnosed.
The paper, Trajectories of Glycemia, Insulin Sensitivity and Insulin Secretion Preceding the Diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes: The Whitehall II Study, was presented at the American Diabetes Association Meeting in New Orleans, Florida this week.
Dr Adam Tabák and colleagues from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London discovered that an increase in glucose levels was followed by a steep increase starting three years prior to the diagnosis of diabetes.
Dr Tabák said: “Little is known about the timing of changes in glucose metabolism prior to type 2 diabetes development.
“Our findings show various opportunities for screening and prevention. Although most prevention studies focus on prediabetic people, our findings suggest that people with prediabetes are already on the steep part of the glucose trajectory. Prevention would be more effective if a diagnosis was possible before this unstable period, but more research is needed to successfully identify people at this stage of disease development.”
In this large cohort of British adults changes in glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, and insulin secretion were evident already 3 years before the diabetes diagnosis.
Notes to editors:
- Lead authors on the study were Dr Adam Tabák, University College London, UK; and Dr Daniel Witte, University College London, UK and Steno Diabetes Centre, Gentofte, Denmark.
- An abstract of the paper can be found on the Lancet website.
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