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Diabetes and prediabetes risk

Take action sooner—identify prediabetes and high-risk patients

With our risk panels, you’ll be able to identify more patients with insulin resistance (IR) or prediabetes who are at risk of developing diabetes. Recognizing risk, including hidden risk, earlier means you can do more sooner to stop or delay the progression to diabetes before it becomes more complex to manage.

Our diabetes risk tests offer key advantages, so you can make a difference when it matters most:

  • Simple, accurate identification of insulin resistance—enables even earlier intervention for insulin-resistant patients who haven’t yet experienced loss of β-cell function 1,2
  • Combined glucose and HbA1c testing—provides greater accuracy in identifying prediabetes than testing for either marker alone3-6
  • Diabetes Risk Score—measures risk of developing diabetes over the next 8 years7
  • Graphical report format—helps you clearly communicate risk to your Patients

Get the early warning signs. Learn more about our metabolic testing and more:

Insulin resistance

Get ahead while there’s still time—the earlier, the better

Insulin resistance (IR) testing offers significant—and often untapped—clinical value and can help you and your patients take action to avoid or change the course of prediabetes and diabetes.8

  • Patients can have normal glucose and HbA1c, but their beta cells may be struggling with glucose load, leading to IR and subsequently, prediabetes and diabetes
  • IR can be gradual and difficult to recognize8—patients must be identified while there is still time to reverse course
  • IR is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)8

Check for diabetes risk with IR testing from Quest Diagnostics

Quest offers the Cardio IQ® Insulin Resistance Panel with Score, a simple, accurate, and actionable way to assess IR and identify prediabetes and diabetes risk. It’s the only routine insulin resistance score validated against the gold standard.

Learn more about the Cardio IQ® Insulin Resistance Panel

Diabetes Risk Panel with Score

Know the risk and start treatment sooner

The Diabetes Risk Panel with Score predicts a patient’s risk of developing diabetes. It provides 4 components:

  • Lipid panel with reflex to direct LDL
  • HbA1c measurement
  • Glucose measurement
  • 8-Year diabetes risk score

Use the Diabetes Risk Panel with Score to assess a patient’s risk of developing diabetes and to identify prediabetes.

With key advantages that directly impact the quality of information and timing of care you can provide to your patients, the panel:

  • Measures both glucose and HbA1c levels—studies have shown that testing glucose and HbA1c levels together provides greater accuracy in identifying prediabetes than testing either marker alone3-6
  • Offers 8-Year Diabetes Risk Score—absolute risk of developing diabetes was determined based on results from a multinomial logistic regression model fit to participants of the ARIC study population7
  • Reports results in a graphical format—supports your discussions with patients by helping you clearly communicate risk

Prediabetes

Prediabetes is defined by blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.

Specifically, prediabetes is defined by the results of any of the following tests:

  • Fasting glucose
  • Hemoglobin A1c
  • Oral glucose tolerance

If any of these tests establishes that the body is not regulating energy metabolism normally, prediabetes is present. The cause may be:

  • A lack of insulin
  • An inability of insulin to act properly
  • A combination of the two

Why is prediabetes such an important diagnosis?

People with prediabetes have metabolic abnormalities that place them at high risk for diabetes. Therefore, diagnosing prediabetes is a necessary first step to taking preventive actions, notably:

  • Exercise
  • Weight reduction
  • Healthy eating

Unlike type 2 diabetes, prediabetes can be cured. It’s essential, therefore, that patients take steps to control and potentially reverse their prediabetes before it progresses to type 2 diabetes.

This information is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. A physician’s test selection and interpretation, diagnosis, and patient management decisions should be based on his/her education, clinical expertise, and assessment of the patient.


References
 

  1. American Diabetes Association, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disorders. The prevention or delay of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2002;25:742-749. doi:10.2337/diacare.25(4).4.742
  2. Genuth S, Kahn R. A step backward—or is it forward? Diabetes Care. 2008;31(6):1093-1096. doi:10.2337/dc07-2407
  3. Schöttker B, Raum E, Rothenbacher D, et al. Prognostic value of haemoglobin A1c and fasting plasma glucose for incident diabetes and implications for screening. Eur J Epidemiol. 2011;26(10):779-787. doi:10.1007/s10654-011-9619-9
  4. Sato KK, Hayashi T, Harita N, et al. Combined measurement of fasting plasma glucose and A1c is effective for the prediction of type 2 diabetes: the Kansai Healthcare Study. Diabetes Care. 2009;32(4):644-646. doi:10.2337/dc08-1631
  5. Soulimane S, Simon D, Shaw J, et al. HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose and the prediction of diabetes: Inter99, AusDiab and D.E.S.I.R. Diab Res Clin Pract. 2012;96(3):392-399. doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2011.06.003
  6. Wang W, Lee ET, Howard BV, et al. Fasting plasma glucose and hemoglobin A1c in identifying and predicting diabetes: the strong heart study. Diabetes Care. 2011;34(2):363-368. doi:10.2337/dc10-1680
  7. Leong A, Daya N, Porneala B, et al. Prediction of type 2 diabetes by hemoglobin A1c in two community-based cohorts. Diabetes Care. 2018;41(1):60-68. doi:10.2337/dc17-0607
  8. Reaven GM. The insulin resistance syndrome. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2003;5(5):364-371. doi:10.1007/s11883-003-0007-0

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