Tests of Glycemia in Diabetes

Association between direct measurement of active serum calcium and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: A prospective study

“…Similarly, higher levels of plasma lactate are associated with incident T2DM (31) and could modify calcium fractions (28). Lastly, it is worth noting that adjustment for albumin concentration has been proposed for another biomarker associated with incident T2DM (fructosamine) (32,33), although it is still unclear the appropriateness of such adjustment given (34). Interestingly, our results are in line with a previous study showing no difference in direct iCa measurement comparing subjects with and without diabetes (11); notably, the Authors speculated that 'correction' of total calcium for serum albumin would not be appropriate because of an increased serum free fatty acids concentrations.…”

Pitfalls in Hemoglobin A1c Measurement: When Results may be Misleading

“…Because the half life of albumin is much shorter than that of an erythrocyte (about 20 days vs. about 120 days), fructosamine reflects a much shorter period of glycemic control compared to A1c, typically the preceding 2 to 3 weeks. 43,44 Therefore, it provides a better assessment of recent changes in glycemic control.…”

“…44 Because of these limitations, fructosamine is not considered a replacement for A1c. Its utility as a measure of glycemic control is reserved for when A1c may be inaccurate, or to assess recent changes in glycemic control.…”

Consensus statement on the worldwide standardisation of the HbA1c measurement

“…Based on the work of the National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP) in the USA and other similar programmes in other parts of the world, the current HbA 1c assay has been harmonised on reference methods that measure a mixture of glycated haemoglobins [7][8][9]. However, to achieve a more uniform standardisation of HbA 1c measurements, it is desirable to have a reference method that measures only a well-defined analyte.…”