Register for email alerts and news feeds:
This journal | BMJ Group
rss
Journal of Clinical Pathology 2008;61:983-987; doi:10.1136/jcp.2007.049205
Copyright © 2008 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Association of Clinical Pathologists.

REVIEWS

Haemoglobin A1c analysis in the management of patients with diabetes: from chaos to harmony

A H Berg and D B Sacks

Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence to:
David B Sacks, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Thorn 530, Boston, MA 02115, USA; dsacks{at}rics.bwh.harvard.edu

Effective management of patients with diabetes mellitus requires accurate assessments of blood glucose control. The best characterised marker of long term glycaemic control is whole blood haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Published clinical trials have identified quantitative and direct relationships between the HbA1c concentration and risks of diabetic microvascular complications. However, in order to practice evidence-based medicine, assays used to measure patient samples should ideally produce values comparable to the assays used in these trials. Numerous assays using chromatographic and immunological detection methods are used around the world. This paper briefly reviews the scientific evolution of HbA1c and its analysis, discusses the reasons why HbA1c assay standardisation is a challenge, describes the approaches that have been adopted to harmonise HbA1c assays, and addresses the current initiatives to standardise HbA1c globally. These efforts have established HbA1c as an essential component in the management of patients with diabetes mellitus and are likely to lead to the use of HbA1c in the screening/diagnosis of diabetes.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Haemoglobin A1c in the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes mellitus
E S Kilpatrick
J. Clin. Pathol. 2008 61: 977-982. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article

Services
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.

Pathology jobs

Pathology jobs