Experts: All Physicians Need Is One Test to Diagnose Diabetes

[This article posted on June 5, 2009. It is posted within the following categories: Science & Research, via Michael Douglas, MD, MBA.]

The experts have been toying with this idea for years. Ever since the medical community have taken note of the importance of tight control of diabetes and the universally benefical effect it has on prevention of serious cardiovascular, kidney, and ocular problems; the role of the much touted test in question — the A1C — has been at the center of the controversy surrounding the best method for “labelling” patient a diabetic.

To be fair, it’s obvious that this diagnosis is much more than a label. Methods which are in use now (fasting glucose blood checks, oral glucose tolerance tests) are universally accepted, sensitive, specific, and validated as true documents of the presence of the disorder. But, according to an expert collective which spoke this week at the American Diabetes Assn. convention, the A1C (currently seen as measure of antidiabetic treatment control) should be considered as a diagnostic tool. The physician and research group, of which the ADA is just one part, stopped short of officially endorsing this line of thinking, rather, stating that the A1C diagnostic guideline would need to be referred to a practice committee before an official statement could be rendered.

The only question now is, what took them so long? | LINK