Prediabetes is a “pre-diagnosis” of diabetes, a warning sign! It’s a situation when your blood glucose level (blood sugar level) is higher than normal, but it’s not high enough to be considered diabetes. Prediabetes is an indication that you could develop type 2 diabetes unless you make some lifestyle changes. This condition is connected with the presence of insulin resistance and with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases but lower then with those with diabetes. Risk for developing diabetes is 50% higher in the next 10 years. About 8% of patients with prediabetes already have complications with vision and eyesight, and 13% newly discovered patients with diabetes already have this complication.
The exact cause of prediabetes is unknown. But, family history and genetics appear to play an important role. Inactivity and excess fat, especially abdominal fat, also seem to be important factors. Patients often have higher triglycerides, lower HDL cholesterol and hypertension. Women have PCO syndrome, gestational diabetes and babies with higher weight than normal.
Diagnosis is confirmed only with OGTT test.
Prediabetes means 2 types of disorder of glucose regulation:
- Impaired fasting glucose: 5.6-6.9 mmol/L
- Impaired glucose tolerance: after 120 minutes OGTT test with 75 gram of glucose serum glucose 7.8-11,0 mmol/L with HgA1c 5.7-6.4%