Diabetes tests

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Klocky

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Type 2
Good evening, since my recent diagnosis my husband is also showing signs of diabetes, he went to see the gp today and is being sent for a hba1c test. I thought this test was to give levels over the last 3 months for comparison purposes so will this test confirm diabetes. We go to the same surgery but he saw a different gp to me. I had a test which showed high levels of glucose so was then sent for fasting/glucose tests and then the hba1c.
 
I seem to remember reading recently that they are proposing using the HbA1c as a basis for diagnosis of diabetes, in place of the fasting and glucose tolerance tests, so perhaps this is already being put into practice in some places?
 
Yes you can tell if somebody is diabetic from there HbA1c, a lot of surgies use this method.. They may choose to follow with a GTT test to see what is actually going on with the level's depending on the results..
 
Thanks guys, I'm must say i'm really impressed by how supportive and informative you all are. I just wanted to make sure it was the right test cos (I know i'm generalising here!) but blokes can be impatient and I was worried that if this was the wrong test he might not go back for another.
 
They've been using the hba1c test for some time in America for confirming diabetes. I read a article last year saying that the UK was going to follow this procedure for diagnosing diabetes, but your husband's is the first time I have heard it being used. Hope everything works out fine! Toby.
 
Northerner said:
I seem to remember reading recently that they are proposing using the HbA1c as a basis for diagnosis of diabetes, in place of the fasting and glucose tolerance tests, so perhaps this is already being put into practice in some places?
Click to expand...

Sounds like a sensible change to me.
 
The HbA1c test can be used to 'support' a diagnosis of diabetes but ultimately the diagnosis should be based on the glucose result. I would be surprised if a GP requested only an HbA1c to test for diabetes as there is no agreed cut off limit for diagnosis. Could your GP have taken blood for a random or fasting glucose at the same time as the HbA1c? A glucose tolerance test isn't always necessary if the initial glucose is abnormal.

As others have said, HbA1c may be used in the future for diagnosis but isn't currently.
 
it's not so much of an issue if your HbA1c is 'very' high (e.g. on diagnosis my HbA1c was 9.2 so clearly not normal!) but people with borderline results could be missdiagnosed either way.
 
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