A blood test could help doctors predict whether or not a patient will develop type 2 diabetes.

Around one in ten Americans is at risk of getting Type 2 diabetes. A new field of study called lipidomics, which studies lipids in the blood, may shed light on the onset and progression of disease, according to researchers.

According to a study, a simple blood test to assess fat in the blood could predict the likelihood of type 2 diabetes.

Researchers hope the low-cost, rapid test could also predict the danger of a heart attack decades in advance.

The current assessment is based on the patient’s medical history, risk behaviors, and cholesterol levels.

But there are more than 100 other types of fats in the blood.

Lipidomics, or the study of fats in the blood, may also reveal new insights into when and why disease occurs, according to researchers.

According to the US CDC, more than 37 million Americans (about 1 in 10) have diabetes, with 90-95 percent of them having type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is most common in those over 45, but it is increasingly affecting an increasing number of adolescents, teenagers, and young adults.

In the study, published in the scientific journal PLOS Biology, researchers looked at blood samples from more than 4,000 adults who were born in the early 1990s to 2015.

They were able to identify the 184 fats found in the blood, referred to as lipids, and then built risk profiles for each member of the group and divided them into six categories.

Researchers believe that risk might be anticipated decades before disease start on an individual level, allowing patients to take efforts to avoid it.

Researchers believe that identifying the lipids that contribute the most to risk could lead to the development of novel medications.

Professor Chris Lauber of Lipotype, a German biotech firm, claims that lipidomic risk may be calculated from a single “cheap and fast” measurement, potentially extending existing risk assessment processes.

He added: “Strengthening disease prevention is a global joint effort with many facets.”

“We show how lipidomics can expand our toolkit for early detection of individuals at high risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.”

Image Credit: Getty

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