HbA1c. How many of us know exactly what this means?
Now all standard Diabetes centers, Hospitals and Clinicians have started recommending this test for their Diabetic patients. It would be apt to say that HbA1c is considered a gold standard investigation for diagnosis , Treatment and Followup of Diabetic patients.
So what is HbA1c?
It is a blood test which will give you an average sugar
control for the past three months. It is otherwise called Glycated Hemoglobin
or Glycosylated haemoglobin or glyycohemoglobin. This Glycated Hemoglobin
comprises of HbA1c, HbA1a, HbA1b, HbS,HbC and HbF. HbA1c is more specific among
the other mentioned components.
HbA1c has been used in many international studies for assessment of risk of developing complications of Diabetes. The normal level of HbA1c in a non-diabetic patient should range between 4.0-6.0%.
American Diabetes Association recommended the use of HbA1c as a diagnostic
marker for diabetes & prediabetes in 2010. People with HbA1c of 6.5% and
above are to be diagnosed as diabetes and HbA1c between 5.7-6.4% are considered to be at risk of diabetes.
The target HbA1c in a Diabetic patient is <7%
The target HbA1c in a Diabetic patient is <7%
HbA1c is definitely a very good tool in the hands of the clinicians to provide a better control over diabetes. But, we also need to know factors that can affect this blood test.
What will show faulty higher HbA1c readings?
HbF and HbG
Hypertriglyceridaemia
Alcoholism
Opiate addiction
Iron deficiency state
Postsplenectomy
Hyperbilirubinaemia
Chronic aspirin therapy
What will show faulty lower HbA1c readings?
HbS and HbC
Haemolytic anaemia
Pregnancy
Acute or chronic blood loss
Methods used for estimating HbA1c
How frequent do we need to estimate HbA1c?
Usually, it should be done every 3 months and when controlled after every 6 months. In pregnancy
for tight control, monthly determination is necessary. In pregnancy a better marker of sugar(Glycemic) control is estimation of serum fructosamine.
I do trust all the ideas you’ve introduced for your post. They are very convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too quick for newbies. Could you please extend them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your valuable comments. Will surely try to take smaller topics and elaborate it in future...
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ReplyDeleteThank you! !
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