A study published in the medical journal Lancet (2002; 359:2140-44) recommends all patients admitted to hospital with symptoms of myocardial infarction, who have not been previously diagnosed with diabetes, should be screened for diabetes. The study, carried out by Dr. Lard Rydes and colleagues at Karolinska Hospital, in Stockholm, Sweden, found that more than 1/3 of patients admitted for myocardial infarction, who did not have a previous diagnosis of diabetes, had the "pre-diabetic" elevated blood sugars characteristic of IGT, Impaired Glucose Tolerance.
A significant percentage of these people either had undiagnosed overt diabetes or were well on the way to developing the condition. Diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes, can cause serious heart and vascular complications, and current research suggests much of this damage takes place before the individual's blood sugars rise into the "clinical diabetic" range.
Intervention (both cardiac and diabetic) is possible, but only once a person has been identified as "at risk." Cardiac events tend to be much more serious for diabetics than for non-diabetics, and diagnosis of diabetes can literally be a matter of life and death.