Testing for diabetes
involves measurement of sugar levels, and finding high levels of sugar
on the test. But there are several varieties of sugar tests that are available, and there
is other
ancillary testing that might help with the diagnosis.
Which tests to do?
Question:
My grandson might have diabetes. He is five years old and the doctors are going to
be running several tests to see if he has juvenile diabetes. The
doctors have noticed a lot of
symptoms that are leading toward diabetes. I would like to know what kind of test they are going to be running on him, to see if it is diabetes or not.
Answer:
Testing for diabetes should include blood sugar levels performed by a medical laboratory. The timing of the sample (fasting, random, or
postprandial)
would influence how high a level is considered abnormal. See
Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes
for further information.
Occasionally, lab blood sugar testing might be normal in an early
case of diabetes, repeat blood sugar testing at the same or a different time, or performing
a glucose tolerance test,
might be appropriate if there is a high suspicion of diabetes
despite normal initial testing. Another test, the
glycosylated hemoglobin,
might be used to help confirm a suspected diagnosis of
diabetes, but the GHB (also called HbA1c or A1c) is not usually considered as appropriate to make an
initial diagnosis.
Antibody
testing is occasionally done as a screening test in high-risk situations, or as confirmatory of
type 1A
(autoimmune)
diabetes, but is not part of routine testing.
Urine sugar tests or home glucose testing, if done, might be positive, which would make the situation more urgent to get lab testing done to confirm the abnormal results. However, urine or home glucose testing, if negative, would not exclude diabetes.
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