The journey from normal glycaemic control to type 2 diabetes is a gradual one and, importantly, gives us lots of opportunities to diagnose so-called ‘pre-diabetes’ and step in to reduce the chances of a patient developing full-blown diabetes, or at least delay its onset. In this article, we review the rationale for early intervention, help you make sense of impaired fasting glycaemia and impaired glucose tolerance and illustrate what to look out for with case studies of patients you are likely to see in your practice.
