diff --git a/docs/requests.md b/docs/requests.md
index 295fb854..d0cbfe77 100644
--- a/docs/requests.md
+++ b/docs/requests.md
@@ -109,3 +109,7 @@ class App:
 If you access `.stream()` then the byte chunks are provided without storing
 the entire body to memory. Any subsequent calls to `.body()`, `.form()`, or `.json()`
 will raise an error.
+
+In some cases such as long-polling, or streaming responses you might need to
+determine if the client has dropped the connection. You can determine this
+state with `disconnected = await request.is_disconnected()`.
diff --git a/starlette/requests.py b/starlette/requests.py
index 1029d977..5b703cea 100644
--- a/starlette/requests.py
+++ b/starlette/requests.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import asyncio
 import http.cookies
 import json
 import typing
@@ -120,6 +121,7 @@ class Request(HTTPConnection):
         assert scope["type"] == "http"
         self._receive = receive
         self._stream_consumed = False
+        self._is_disconnected = False
 
     @property
     def method(self) -> str:
@@ -148,6 +150,7 @@ class Request(HTTPConnection):
                 if not message.get("more_body", False):
                     break
             elif message["type"] == "http.disconnect":
+                self._is_disconnected = True
                 raise ClientDisconnect()
         yield b""
 
@@ -187,3 +190,15 @@ class Request(HTTPConnection):
             for item in self._form.values():
                 if hasattr(item, "close"):
                     await item.close()  # type: ignore
+
+    async def is_disconnected(self) -> bool:
+        if not self._is_disconnected:
+            try:
+                message = await asyncio.wait_for(self._receive(), timeout=0.0000001)
+            except asyncio.TimeoutError as exc:
+                message = {}
+
+            if message.get("type") == "http.disconnect":
+                self._is_disconnected = True
+
+        return self._is_disconnected
diff --git a/starlette/testclient.py b/starlette/testclient.py
index 01b843aa..dd3f2976 100644
--- a/starlette/testclient.py
+++ b/starlette/testclient.py
@@ -129,6 +129,13 @@ class _ASGIAdapter(requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter):
         }
 
         async def receive() -> Message:
+            nonlocal request_complete, response_complete
+
+            if request_complete:
+                while not response_complete:
+                    await asyncio.sleep(0.0001)
+                return {"type": "http.disconnect"}
+
             body = request.body
             if isinstance(body, str):
                 body_bytes = body.encode("utf-8")  # type: bytes
@@ -141,9 +148,12 @@ class _ASGIAdapter(requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter):
                         chunk = chunk.encode("utf-8")
                     return {"type": "http.request", "body": chunk, "more_body": True}
                 except StopIteration:
+                    request_complete = True
                     return {"type": "http.request", "body": b""}
             else:
                 body_bytes = body
+
+            request_complete = True
             return {"type": "http.request", "body": body_bytes}
 
         async def send(message: Message) -> None:
@@ -182,6 +192,7 @@ class _ASGIAdapter(requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter):
                 template = message["template"]
                 context = message["context"]
 
+        request_complete = False
         response_started = False
         response_complete = False
         raw_kwargs = {"body": io.BytesIO()}  # type: typing.Dict[str, typing.Any]
diff --git a/tests/test_requests.py b/tests/test_requests.py
index 9e02c9ff..32d0ab6b 100644
--- a/tests/test_requests.py
+++ b/tests/test_requests.py
@@ -254,6 +254,32 @@ def test_request_disconnect():
         loop.run_until_complete(asgi_callable(receiver, None))
 
 
+def test_request_is_disconnected():
+    """
+    If a client disconnect occurs while reading request body
+    then ClientDisconnect should be raised.
+    """
+    disconnected_after_response = None
+
+    def app(scope):
+        async def asgi(receive, send):
+            nonlocal disconnected_after_response
+
+            request = Request(scope, receive)
+            await request.body()
+            disconnected = await request.is_disconnected()
+            response = JSONResponse({"disconnected": disconnected})
+            await response(receive, send)
+            disconnected_after_response = await request.is_disconnected()
+
+        return asgi
+
+    client = TestClient(app)
+    response = client.get("/")
+    assert response.json() == {"disconnected": False}
+    assert disconnected_after_response
+
+
 def test_request_cookies():
     def app(scope):
         async def asgi(receive, send):