Novel noninvasive breath test method for screening individuals at risk for diabetes.

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 (13)CO(2) excretion during a (13)C-labeled OGTT between individuals with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and individuals with pre-diabetes and early-stage diabetes (PDED) and whether these differences correlated with blood glucose kinetics.

Research Design And Methods: Blood and breath samples were collected at baseline and every 30 min for a 10-h period after ingestion of 75 g glucose isotopically labeled with 150 mg [U-(13)C(6)]D-glucose.