Simple blood test could accurately predict type 2 diabetes risk

By Joe Morgan via SWNS

A simple blood test that measures fat in the blood could accurately predict the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

The cheap and fast test could also determine the possible risk of heart attack decades before it happens.

Current assessment of risk largely relies on patient history, current risk behaviors and level of cholesterol.

But there are actually over 100 other types of fats in the blood, which are thought to reflect at least in part metabolism and how the body regulates itself.

Around two million people in England are at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, the highest on record, according to new NHS figures.

In the study, researchers drew on blood samples of over 4,000 adults from the early 90s to 2015.

Researchers were able to identify the 184 fats in the blood, known as lipids, and then created risk profiles and then separated the group in six subgroups.

The high risk group for type two diabetes was 37 percent, an increase in risk of 168 percent.

The risk for cardiovascular disease in the highest-risk group was 40.5 percent, an increase in risk of 84 percent.

On an individual level, researchers say that risk could possibly be predicted decades before disease onset meaning patients could take steps to avert it.

Researchers say lipidomics, the study of fats in the blood, may also provide new insights into when and why disease begins.

They also say, by identifying the lipids that contribute most to risk, it may be possible to identify new drugs.

Professor Chris Lauber, at Lipotype - a biotech company based in Germany, said: "The lipidomic risk, which is derived from only one single mass-spectrometric measurement that is cheap and fast, could extend traditional risk assessment based on clinical assay.

"In addition, individual lipids in blood may be the consequences of or contribute to a wide variety of metabolic processes, which may be individually significant as markers of those processes.

"If that is true, the lipidome may provide insights much beyond diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk.”

Prof Lauber added: “Strengthening disease prevention is a global joint effort with many facets.

"We show how lipidomics can expand our toolkit for early detection of individuals at high risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.”

The study was published in the journal PLOS Biology.