New research presented at this year's Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Hamburg (2-6 Oct), reveals a marked increase in several common conditions in the years leading up to, and immediately prior to, type 2 diabetes diagnosis, suggesting considerably earlier diagnosis might be possible in some patients.
"These novel insights into the onset and natural progression of type 2 diabetes, suggest an early phase of inflammation-related disease activity long before any clinical diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is made", says senior author Dr Adrian Heald from Manchester University, UK.
"These findings hint at the potential for type 2 diabetes to be diagnosed earlier, and we hope that the distinct clinical trajectory could become a predictive tool for people at risk of the disease."
Type 2 diabetes is commonly associated with an increasing complexity of multiple illnesses and related treatments. While some progress has been made in identifying genetic and non-genetic risk factors for type 2 diabetes, understanding the long-term clinical history of individuals before and after diagnosis may provide additional insights into its causes and complex trajectory of multiple health conditions.
To find out more, UK researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester University and Salford Royal Hospital analysed longitudinal data from the Diabetes Alliance for Research in England (DARE) Study to examine the accumulation of the most common clinical conditions in 1,932 adults with and without type 2 diabetes matched by age and gender.
Data on 1,196 individuals who were eventually diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and 736 without diabetes were analysed over a period of up to 50 years (25 years pre-diagnosis and 25 years post-diagnosis). The average age at type 2 diabetes diagnosis was 53 years.
