A NOVEL NON-INVASIVE BREATH TEST METHOD FOR SCREENING PERSONS AT RISK FOR DIABETES

Abstract

Objective- Diagnosis of pre-diabetes and early-stage diabetes occurs primarily by means of an oral glucose tolerance test (ogtt) which requires invasive blood sampling. The aim of this study was to determine whether differences exist in breath ¹³co₂ excretion during a ¹³c-labeled ogtt between normal glucose tolerant (ngt) individuals and persons with pre-diabetes and early-stage diabetes (pded), and whether these differences correlated with blood glucose kinetics.

Methods- Blood and breath samples were collected at baseline and every 30 minutes for a 10 h period following ingestion of 75 g of glucose isotopically labeled with 150 mg of U-¹³C₆-D-glucose.

Results- Age (56±5 vs. 47±3 y) and body mass index (BMI) (31±2 vs. 31±2 kg/m²) were not different between NGT (n=10) and PDED (n=7), respectively. Blood glucose concentrations were significantly higher in PDED compared to NGT from baseline to 4.5 h post-glucose ingestion (P≤0.05). Glucose-derived breath ¹³CO₂ was significantly lower in PDED compared to NGT from 1 to 3.5 h post-glucose (P≤0.05). Peak breath ¹³CO₂ abundance occurred at 4.5 and 3.5 h in PDED and NGT, respectively (36.87±3.15 vs. 41.36±1.56 ‰ delta over baseline).

Conclusions- These results suggest that this novel breath test method may assist in recognition of pre-diabetes or early-stage diabetes in at-risk persons without the need for invasive blood sampling, thus making it an attractive option for large-scale testing of at-risk populations, such as children.