HBA1C as a Diagnostic Tool for Diabetes

¶ … thirds of the global population lives within the Asia Pacific area where pervasiveness of diabetes has reached rampant proportion. With India and China being the most densely inhabited countries in the world, it is thought that over one hundred and fifty million diabetes cases reside in the area with more than a staggering 95% being of T2DM or type 2 diabetes mellitus. Additionally, other Pacific islands within the area have high rates of T2DM. These islands include Tonga, Nauru, French Polynesia, and Fiji.

The latter possesses the highest occurrence of T2DM per populace in the globe. Over the past twenty, New Zealand and Australia, the incidence of T2DM has actually doubled, largely midst the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal and Maori peoples correspondingly. With the snowballing frequency of diabetes within the Asia Pacific area coupled with the inadequate number of resources, use of a consistent and efficient mode of diagnosis for type 2 diabetes mellitus is necessary.

Yet to date, only nations like New Zealand have adopted the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommendation of using test that include hemoglobin A1C in the initial diagnosis of the illness. The objective of the article is to discuss clinical practicality of hemoglobin A1C as well as highlight its diagnostic part in the Asia Pacific area where T2DM is progressively encountered. Body The introduction covers the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the Asia Pacific region.

This region experiences poor monitoring and late diagnosis, which is line with increased risk of macrovascular and microvascular disease, mortality, and disability. Many of those afflicted with diabetes mellitus that are diagnosed in later experience increased premature death. The A1C test may help introduce earlier diagnosis among the Asian Pacific population.

The newfound use of A1C as a diagnostic tool has been accepted internationally with the World Health Organization as well as the International Diabetes Federation recommending the use of A1C test to perform early diagnosis of the disease. The problem lies in the Asian Pacific regions late acceptance of this new standard. The A1C test is officially called the HbA1C and was previously used to help monitor a patient's glycemic control as well as guide therapy in people already diagnosed.

The test presents a great way to monitor and diagnose diabetes mellitus because it can be performed with or without consumption of food. It also does not require measuring blood glucose levels and provides an easy and inexpensive way to determine potential diabetes condition without too much energy spent on testing and getting results.

Overall the articles highlights the effectiveness of this kind of test as well as the need for it in the Asian Pacific region as increased cases of late-onset diagnosed diabetes mellitus leads to costly treatments and medications.

The article continues with hemoglobin A1C in clinical practice and shares that "With approximately 50% of HbA1C representing blood glucose levels over the preceding 30 d, and 10% the previous 90-120 d, the measured HbA1C was able to be extrapolated to provide an estimation of average glucose control over the past 2-3-month" (Bagley & Malabu, 2014, p. 60215). The 3-month range provides accurate prediction of existence of diabetes mellitus in patients tested. Those that perform the test use regression analysis to get results.

"Regression equations, developed using data from earlier studies, are then used to generate average blood glucose levels from HbA1C, ultimately aiding in the development of current DM management guidelines" (Bagley & Malabu, 2014, p. 60215). The article then continues to explain that the association between HbA1C and glucose control and development of diabetic complications became evident as early as the 1980's, supporting the application of HbA1C to the experimental environment; an identifiable cornerstone within clinical practice.

The article also covers advances in HbA1C and provides a section that discusses the topic of the cost-effectiveness of using HbA1C as a diagnostic tool. The Asia Pacific region will require a cost-effective diagnostic tool in order to implement a better standard diagnostic approach. HbA1C may be the answer.

"With HbA1C having the ability to diagnose and assess the severity in one test, this enables the practitioner to initiate management on the confirmatory return visit, resulting in decreased costs as a result of fewer returned general practice consultations" (Bagley & Malabu, 2014, p. 60218). The diagnostic tool provides the practitioner a way to detect and diagnose diabetes mellitus faster than other methods. Some limitations do exist to the diagnostic tool. This falls more into variances in laboratories. Standardized testing should provide some relief from such limitations.

Conclusion In conclusion, articles like the one reviewed here, provide into several.