Sunday, August 21, 2011

HbA1c and blood glucose for the diagnosis of diabetes

THE LANCET
Traditionally, blood glucose values (fasting, 2-h postprandial, or after a 75 g oral glucose load) have been used to diagnose diabetes, but the cutoff for diagnosis has been revised several times in the past few decades. For about a decade, it has been debated whether measures of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), a standard monitoring test for the control of diabetes, could also be used as diagnostic criteria. Those who support this idea argue that a convenient laboratory test (eg, non-fasting), which reflects long-term hyperglycaemia over the preceding 2–3 months and is a proven measure of diabetes-related complications, should diagnose the disease more successfully than a single measurement of blood glucose.

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