Prevalence of abnormal oral glucose tolerance with concomitant dyslipidaemia: implications for cardiovascular risk assessment in prediabetes

A report from Norway published in 1994 indicates incidence of up to 45% in abnormal oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs), including 33% which suggest prediabetes. Some 18 years after publication of that report, there continues to be a lack of corroborative data from other countries. Recent publications indicate that glucose measurement identifies only approximately 10% of adults, although the authors acknowledged that 'epidemiology of prediabetes depends on the diagnostic method used'. Although OGTT has been regarded as inconsistent, inconvenient and poorly reproducible,3 it continues to provide predictive advantage to the use of fasting blood glucose (FBG) alone. Thus, its abandonment is not recommended. Indeed, it remains a cornerstone in the recent recommendations on the diagnosis and classification of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy. The present work reviews data from the South West Pathology Service (SWPS) of NSW Health, which covers the south-western region of New South Wales, as well as the adjoining north-east region of Victoria, Australia. The first objective is to determine, using archived clinical pathology data (ACPD) on OGTT, the prevalence of prediabetes in an Australian region.