Three Standard Methods of Testing for Diabetes
Over the years, diabetes has slowly become a major public health problem. Over twenty million people in the U.S. have diabetes according to the According to the juvenile diabetes association – most of them with type 2 diabetes. With the federal government and insurance companies facing increasing medical costs of treating diabetes and its associated problems, there is a great incentive to begin identifying those at risk for diabetes before they actually develop this chronic disease.
One way of doing this is with various types of diabetes pre-screening tests. Diabetes is defined as a metabolism disorder where the person has excessive sugar in the blood. Testing, however, cannot be performed by simply drawing blood and measuring the glucose levels. This is because a significant portion of the public has normal blood glucose levels during the day but raised glucose levels as they eat during the day. Any valid test for diabetes has to take this into account.
There are three main tests for diabetes used by medical care practitioners. They all basically measure how fast and efficiently your body is able to clear glucose from your blood stream. A test showing results of relatively high glucose levels is a good indication that you have glucose intolerance, pre-diabetes, or diabetes. The three tests are:
1) Random or casual plasma glucose testing – the patient can be tested at any point in the day. According to the American Diabetes Association, if the test shows a casual plasma glucose concentration of 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), it has met the criteria for a diagnosis of diabetes.
2) Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) testing – sometimes referred to as the fasting blood sugar test because the patient has to fast before the test is administered. Fasting, in this context, means that the patient has not consumed food or drink, other than water, for at least eight hours prior to the test. It’s probably most convenient when done first thing in the morning after a night’s sleep. The test measures blood sugar levels. The normal glucose level after fasting is approximately 100 mg/dl. A diagnosis of diabetes can be made if the glucose concentration is 126 mg/dl or more. Monitoring of the blood glucose measurements persists throughout the day. Because this test is relatively inexpensive, it is a popular one with insurance companies and health care providers. This is also a standard test given to check for pre-diabetes.
3) Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) – The best and most comprehensive of the tests. It is more sensitive than the FPG test and can test for impaired glucose intolerance which the other two cannot. It’s also the most expensive, making it the least popular with insurance companies and health providers. The test is performed two hours after orally taking 75 grams of glucose. A diagnosis of diabetes can be made if the blood glucose results show 200 mg/dl or greater.
For various reasons, a testing result can give a false positive, indicating that a person has diabetes when, in fact he doesn’t. Because of this, if a test shows positive, it should be repeated to confirm the results.
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Filed under Diabetes by on May 9th, 2009. Comment. 
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