English

Abstract

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To compare and correlate glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1C) values suggested by ADA with fasting blood glucose (FBG) and two-hours plasma glucose (PG) ≥ 200mg/dl during an OGTT in the diagnosis of diabetes. 2. To define the sensitivity and specificity of HbA1C estimates at the ADA recommended cut off of ≥ 6.5%. 3. To study the effect of changing the HbA1C cut off value on the sensitivity and specificity to diagnose diabetes mellitus in the Indian population. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Patients were first tested for FBG and two-hours PPG. HbA1c was estimated for the 150 newly detected type 2 diabetes mellitus patients by using the immuneturbidometric method. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of HbA1C at the ADA recommended ≥ 6.5% cut off value in newly detected diabetic patients was 97.56% and 33.33% respectively with a positive predicted value of 86.96 % and a negative predictive value of 75.00 % at a p<0.001. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that HbA1C can be used along with blood sugar estimation but is not superior enough to replace blood glucose estimation. Cost and standardisation of HbA1C assays is a big hurdle in the Indian context. Blood sugars on the other hand are widely available and cost effective.