Single Flexible Postprandial Plasma Glucose Test as a New Screening Modality for Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Background: The study was aimed at assessing the adequacy of single flexible postprandial plasma glucose (FPPPG) 
test with time of sampling between 30-120 min after breakfast/snack/meal as a screening test for diabetes mellitus  
and IGT. 
Study Design: cross sectional study 
Place and Duration of study: Study was carried out in the Department of Chemical Pathology and Endocrinology at 
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi from January to November 1995.  
Patients and methods: Eighty eight consecutive patients referred to AFIP for oral glucose tolerance test were included. 
The ages of patients ranged from 30 - 65 y. In the first step, on day 1 oral glucose tolerance test and in the second step, 
on day 2 flexible time based postprandial plasma glucose (FPPPG) 30-120 min after breakfast/snack/meal were 
performed. 12 patients did not turn up on day 2 for FPPPG test. In this study we performed FPPPG test on 76 patients as 
a screening test, with a cutoff point of 7. 0 mmol / l 
Results: The study revealed that all 22 diabetic patients (100%) had levels above the limit whereas, 15 (83.3%) out of 19 
patients of IGT had levels above cutoff level. On the other hand out of 35 healthy subjects only 2 (5.71%) had values 
above the limit.  
Conclusion: This study proposes a new screening test (FPPPG) for diabetes mellitus and IGT, which has a 
sensitivity of (100 %), specificity of (66.7 %) and positive predictive value of (55 %)  
Key words: diabetes mellitus (DM), flexible post prandial plasma glucose (PPPG), world health organization 
WHO, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), international diabetic federation 
(IDF), positive predictive value (PPV+), negative predictive value (NPV-)