EFN

Recent studies have shown that glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) has been found to be a better predictor of cardiovascular disease and diabetes than blood glucose.

The A1C test measures the persons’ blood sugar levels over the past two or three months meaning it measures the percentage of hemoglobin that is glycated or glycosylated. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) set the levels at 5.7 - 6.4% is a diagnosis for pre-diabetes and 6.5% and higher is a diagnosis of diabetes.

The lead author of the project, Elizabeth Selvin, said, “Our data show that glycated hemoglobin is a really potent risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. If you have abnormal glycated hemoglobin results, you should be targeted for diabetes and cardiovascular disease interventions.” Selvin is an assistant professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.

Previously it wasn’t being recommended that the A1C test be used to diagnosis diabetes in patients due to the test not being standardized from one lab to another. This past January though, the ADA is confident with the strides made and the study that they are not saying it’s a better indicator of the disease than the traditional blood glucose testing.