Prediabetes associated with impaired lung function

By Sally Robertson, B.Sc.Feb 14 2013

Japanese researchers have found a significant association between prediabetes and impaired lung function.

In a cross-sectional study of 1237 individuals, they show that impaired fasting glucose (IFG) is associated with a low forced vital capacity (FVC), an indicator for restrictive lung disease.

Many studies have shown that Type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome are associated with impaired lung function, and others have suggested that impaired lung function is a complication of diabetes, say Kei Nakajima (Josai University, Sakado, Japan) and colleagues. However, "no study has examined the association between prediabetes and impaired lung function."

To address this, Nakajima and team studied data available for individuals who attended annual medical checkups and underwent a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test between April 2009 and March 2010 to investigate suspected diabetes.

The researchers found that 45 (4%) of the participants met the American Diabetes Association criteria for diabetes. In addition, 542 (44%) individuals had prediabetes.

Of those diagnosed with prediabetes, half (50%) had IFG, while 118 (22%) had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and 152 (28%) had a combination of IFG and IGT.

As reported in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, the prevalence of low FVC, defined as below 80% of predicted, increased with each stage of progression from normal glucose tolerance through to diabetes.

In addition, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that, relative to NGT, diabetes and prediabetes were respectively associated with 2.9- and 1.6-fold increased odds for low FVC.

Subgroup analysis of the prediabetes measurements showed that only IFG, and not IGT or IFG/IGT, was significantly associated with low FVC, after adjustment for multiple confounders including body mass index.

"It is unknown why only IFG and not other types of prediabetes were associated with [low FVC]," say Nakajima and team, who note that "analyses of other populations, such as obese people or those with postprandial hyperglycemia, and using different definitions of prediabetes may yield different results."

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