Diabetes Core:
The Glucose Transition Study (Diabetes Risk Study)
We invite CCHC cohort participants who have blood sugars in the ‘impaired fasting blood glucose’ range to participate in this new study. Impaired fasting blood glucose (IFG) is defined as blood glucose between 100 and 126 mg/dl after an overnight, 8 hour fast. People with IFG in this range are described as having ‘pre-diabetes’. The question we wish to answer is what are the precipitating factors that make a pre-diabetes patient progress to frank diabetes (IFG>126). To address this question we will be visiting these participants every three months to administer a short questionnaire and take a blood sample. The samples and information will be stored, and if and when a particular participant develops diabetes, we will then access the information, run assays on the samples and look for precipitating factors. We will want to know what other events occurred during that time, any illnesses or other important changes. We will test the samples for a range of cytokines, metabolic and immune system markers known to alter in diabetes and its complications. We hope this study will allow us to define the events and changes that occur when a patient develop diabetes, and therefore allow us to predict this transition earlier and hopefully intervene.
