Oral glucose-tolerance tests and the diagnosis of diabetes: results of a prospective study based on the Whitehall survey.
Men who participated in the Whitehall survey and were found to be glucose intolerant have been studied 6--8 years later, together with a control group of men with normal screening blood-sugar levels. Ophthalmoscopically visible microvascular retinal disease was confined to men diagnosed as probably diabetic after the survey because their 2 h blood-sugar level (after a 50 g oral glucose load) in the survey examination or during a subsequent standard oral glucose-tolerance test was greater than or equal to 200 mg/dl (11.1 mmol/l). The lowest blood-sugar in a "diabetic" subsequently found to have retinopathy was 229 mg/dl. Men with lesser degrees of glucose intolerance, including 34 who had "worsened to diabetes", did not have visible retinovascular disease at follow-up. If diabetes implies a risk of specific microvascular complications in the medium term, then the findings in this study support proposals for the revision of diagnostic criteria based on glucose-tolerance tests.
D000368:Aged; D000419:Albuminuria / Q000652:urine; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D004739:England; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D006801:Humans; D006943:Hyperglycemia / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors
D001786:Blood Glucose