Diabetes Diagnosis

• Diabetes diagnosis is important to find out if a person suffers from diabetes.  Once a person is diagnosed to have developed diabetes, diabetes

treatment should be started immediately.

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Diagnosing Diabetes

    The diagnosis of diabetes is not a difficult one especially for type 1 diabetes or juvenile onset diabetes.  There are usually these classic symptoms of rapid weight loss, extreme hunger, tiredness, frequent and copious urination, and excessive thirst to make type 1 diabetes easy to diagnose.

    However, the adult onset diabetes or type 2 diabetes may not present such a definite set of symptoms for months or years after a person has actually developed type 2 diabetes.  Type 2 diabetics may also have a persistent skin infections or vague fatigue.  A diabetic woman may experience a persistent genital itch which is caused by yeast in the sugar-rich urine.

    Your doctor can diagnose whether you are a diabetic by running a blood test on you.  There are a few tests that can ascertain if you have developed diabetes.  These tests are explained as below:

•     Fasting Blood Glucose (Blood Sugar) Level

  • You need to fast for at least 12 hours or more the night before.  Your blood sample is then taken in the morning.  Though you are not allowed to eat, drinking plain water is permissible.  The fasting blood glucose reveals the true glucose level in your blood.
     

  • Blood Glucose Levels

        The table below shows a comparison of blood glucose levels between fasting blood sample and random blood sample.

    	Fasting Blood Glucose mg/dl (mmol/L)	Random Blood Glucose mg/dl (mmol/L)
    High	>126 (7.0)	>200 (11.1)
    Borderline	>110 to <126 >6.1 to <7.0	>140 to <200 >7.8 to <11.1
    Normal	<110 (6.1)	<140 (7.8)

     

•     Oral Glucose Tolerance Test

  • The purpose of this test it to determine the ability of the body to handle excess sugar after drinking a high dose of glucose drink.  At the start of this test, your doctor will take your fasting blood glucose reading.  Then, you will be given 75 gram of glucose with 200-300 ml of water.  For the next two hours, blood sample will be taken every half hour to determine the blood glucose levels.  With these values, a glucose tolerance graph will the plotted and your doctor will check if there is any deviation from the normal result.
     

•     Hemoglobin A_1C (HbA_1C) Test

  • You may also need to have your blood tested for glycosylated hemoglobin, an altered form of the pigment in red blood cell.  Hemoglobin can be found in red blood cells and they function to carry oxygen throughout the body.  When the glucose level in the blood is too high, the sugar will bind to the hemoglobin.  The glucose can stay attached to the hemoglobin until the blood cell dies which is about 3 months.  By measuring your HbA_1C level, you will be able to know how high your blood glucose has been over the last 2-3 months.
     

  • The table below shows the average blood glucose levels represented by the HbA_1C value.

    Average Blood Glucose Level (mg/dl)	HbA1C (%)
    90	5
    120	6
    150	7
    180	8
    210	9
    240	10
    270	11
    300	12
    330	13
    360	14

     

  • The ideal range for HbA_1C value is generally less than 7%.  Above 9% means poor blood glucose control.

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