The test that doctors most often rely on to detect a person’s risk for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes—the hemoglobin A1c (A1c) blood test—too often delivers a poor reading, thereby missing the diagnosis in nearly three out of four at-risk individuals, according to research presented at the Endocrine Society meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. The investigators compared the accuracy of the A1c test with the other screening method used to assess patients’ risk of diabetes—the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)—to arrive at this startling conclusion. The common use of the hemoglobin A1c test to screen for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes should be skipped in place of more reliable tests.
"The A1c missed almost 73% of the people with diabetes in comparison to the oral glucose tolerance test," says An Endocrinologist. The A1c lab value represents a look back at average blood glucose levels…
