HbA1C test reliable enough to diagnose T2DM

Red blood cell was the most common type of blood cell , its principal work was to delivering oxygen to body tissues via blood flow through the circulatory system, its structure as shown below

cell-structure-and-organisation-23-728

 

Life time : 100 to 120 days after that new cells will be developed from bone marrow

Hemoglobin : iron containing oxygen transport protein in red blood cells

Glycated Hemoglobin:  Due to non-enzymatic glycation pathway  by hemoglobin’s  exposure to plasma glucose . As average amount of plasma glucose increases  the fraction of glycated hemoglobin also increases in predictable way so to measure average glucose level over 3 months this will be useful to find out the control of blood glucose level in type 2 diabetic patients.

Hb_HbA1c_Comparison_2

 

Is HbA1C is good candidate to diagnose T2DM ?

The answer might be sometimes false positive due to various reasons or other conditions people might face that might require additional test such as Post prandial blood sugar might be needed to confirm.

Given below were some of the cases HbA1c may be spuriously elevated or depressed

  • Recent transfusion
  • Hemolysis or blood loss
  • asplenia
  • Anemia
  • Hemoglobin C disease
  • Chronic alcohol [Skew]
  • ingestion of large amount of vitamin C & E [Skew]

since HbA1c measurement was crucial one so its good to be familiar with factors affecting the test  in general and limitations.

HbA1c was the gold rule to find out the control mechanism of diabetes in that no one has doubt but when it comes to diagnose new diabetic patients that test might interfere with other conditions which will falsify the test result so if there was skewed / elevated result of HbA1c its worth to measure PPBS to confirm or diagnose Type 2 diabetes.

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