Given the country’s huge burden of diabetes, health experts stress that prevention is key. Lifestyle modifications and awareness apart, doctors are looking at identifying candidates at high risk with mere blood tests.
In a recent paper published in the Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, the authors argue that measuring levels of GGT, a liver enzyme, through a low-cost blood test, might indicate the risk of developing diabetes.
The liver, a major site of insulin clearance, plays an important role in maintaining fasting and postprandial blood sugar levels. “We wanted to look at the possibility of using GGT as a marker to screen people and identify risk of diabetes; and whether that will improve the sensitivity of testing for diabetes,” says Nanditha Arun, consultant diabetologist, Dr. A. Ramachandran’s Diabetes Hospitals, and lead author of the study.
The paper looks at a study where over 500 persons among 10,000 in Tamil Nadu tested positive for pre-diabetes. Their GGT levels were measured and followed up over a period of two years, by which period some had reversed to normal glucose levels, and others had progressed to diabetes.
The diabetics had higher GGT levels at follow-up, and also recorded comparatively higher GGT levels at baseline. Also, GGT readings, along with fasting glucose, increased sensitivity to 60 per cent, as against the 48-50 per cent of only fasting blood sugar levels. “False positives come down. The test, which is usually done as part of the Liver Function Test package that costs Rs. 300 or so, can also be done individually for Rs. 50 or so,” Dr. Arun adds.
The message for the patient, at the end of the day, remains one of lifestyle modifications — adopting a healthy diet and stepping up physical activity — to keep metabolic disorders at bay, she says.
