The concept of impaired fasting glucose and impaired glucose tolerance and their different profiles

The concept of impaired fasting glucose(IFG) was firstly raised in 1997,and the fasting glucose level of the diagnostic criteria of IFG was lowered from 6.1 mmol/L to 5.6 mmol/L in 2003 by ADA. Both IFG and impaired glucose tolerance(IGT) have higher risk of diabetes than normal glucose tolerance, but they also have many different profiles, such as their prevalence in different sex and races, their state of insulin secretion and insulin resistance, their relationship with vascular diseases and the incidence and mortality of vascular diseases. So some actions should be taken for IFG and IGT based on their pathophysiology.