Impaired Glucose Tolerance and Impaired Fasting Glycemia

Abstract

Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and impaired fasting glycemia (IFG) are recognized as an intermediate group of people who have higher blood glucose level than the recognized normal value but not sufficiently high as described in diabetes mellitus. In 1979, IGT was introduced to change the word “borderline diabetes” and other situations of increased level of blood sugar that did not produce risk of a microvascular complication. WHO in 1985 recognized IGT as a clinical class of glucose intolerance and subsequently categorized it as a state in the natural history of disturbed carbohydrate metabolism. The people with IFG and/or IGT have a high chance toward diabetes state in the future. Though IFG and IGT should not be considered as clinical entities in their own, they should be considered as risk factors for DM and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This prediabetes condition are usually connected with obesity (though abdominal obesity or visceral obesity is mainly connected with this situation), hypertension, and dyslipidemia with higher level of triglycerides and/or reduced quantity of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (Petersen and McGuire 2005; Nathan et al. 2007; NHS Lanarkshire 2011; American Diabetes Association 2013a, b).