Test can diagnose pre-diabetes
A discovery by University of Hawai’i Cancer Center can diagnose pre-diabetes, allowing them to change their lifestyle to avoid the disease.
The test uses a panel of markers that helps identify if a person is pre-diabetic by measuring the fatty acids in their blood. The levels of these fatty acids can change up to 10 years before the individuals are diagnosed with diabetes.
The markers through a blood sample test may help predict the risk of developing pre-diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which is a group of conditions including elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance and high glucose level.
“It is conventionally assumed that if people are obese they are in risk of being pre-diabetic. However, sometimes people who are obese can still be healthy. If people know they are specifically pre-diabetic they can have a more targeted way of treating it,” said Dr. Wei Jia director of the UH Cancer Center’s Metabolomics Shared Resources Program.
Dr. Jia and his research team conducted a metabolomics study on four independent cohorts that involved a total of 452 participants, in collaboration with scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University affiliated Shanghai 6th People’s Hospital.
The team performed a cross-sectional study with metabolically healthy and unhealthy obese subjects, a longitudinal study to observe the occurrence of developing pre-diabetes over as long as ten years, and two studies to evaluate the therapeutic effects on subjects who underwent metabolic surgery or received very low carbohydrate diet for eight weeks.
The researchers aim to continue developing the blood test technology, and eventually have it available for physicians.
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
