Australian scientists have discovered a simple way to predict which people with type 2 diabetes are most likely to die or suffer a heart attack.
Type 2 diabetes greatly increases the risk of death, but until now doctors have not known which of the 946,000 Australian patients need special attention.
Better risk detection might allow doctors to save lives with intensive treatment or further investigation, says Associate Professor Graham Hillis.
He has conducted a study on 3862 patients that shows risk levels can be determined using two readily available blood tests.
A report on the study is published in the journal Diabetes Care.
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"Simple screening tests that better detect high-risk patients would be particularly valuable," said Prof Hillis of the George Institute for Global Health and the University of Sydney.
More than 350 million people have type 2 diabetes, which is the world's fastest-growing chronic disease.
