Endocrine Abstracts

OBJECTIVE. Previous studies of relatives of patients with type 2 diabetes had given valuable information necessary for the current attempts towards primary prevention of diabetes. Thus, we aimed to assess the changes in anthropometric, metabolic and insulin resistance indices in a previously studied group of offspring of type 2 diabetic patients.METHOD: Twenty-three (23) previously studied offspring of patients with type 2 diabetes participated for re-assessment of diabetic risk factors two years after an initial evaluation. Body weight (kg), waist (cm) and hip circumferences (cm) were measured. Then, fasting and 2 hour blood sample were respectively collected from each subject before and after consuming 75 g of anhydrous glucose in 300ml of water. Plasma glucose, serum insulin, triglyceride, total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol concentrations were measured and insulin resistance and sensitivity were determined by Homeostatic Model Assessment (HOMA). RESULTS: Of the 23 offspring studied, one (4.3%) had developed diabetes and there was a general trend towards increasing fasting plasma glucose concentration (p > 0.05). Again, there was a trend towards increasing body weight, with significantly higher mean ratio of waist-to-hip circumference in 2001 compared with previous values (p < 0.05). However, there were significant increases in insulin sensitivity and in HDL-cholesterol concentration, the latter being followed by significant decrease in total cholesterol-to-HDL-cholesterol ratio (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that prospective laboratory assessment of offspring of diabetic patients would be potentially useful for early detection and treatment of glucose intolerance in susceptible individuals.