How is Diabetes diagnosed?
The American Diabetes Association in June, 1997, announced new recommendations for how it should be diagnosed.
The international ADA Committee studying the issue recommended lowering the numbers being used to diagnose diabetes for the most common tests employed to identify people with the disease. The ADA's hope is that physicians will identify patients who have diabetes earlier, when the chances for preventing long-term complications through good diabetes management are greatest.
The ADA now also recommends that all individuals age 45 and above be tested, and if the test is normal, they should be re-tested every three years. Testing should be conducted at earlier ages and carried out more frequently in individuals who are any of the following: obese; have a first degree relative with diabetes; are members of a high-risk ethnic population (African-American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian); have delivered a baby weighing more than 9 pounds; have had gestational diabetes; are hypertensive; have HDL cholesterol levels equal to or less than 35 mg/dl or triglyceride levels equal to or greater than 250 mg/dl or who, on previous testing had impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose.
The ADA recommendations for diagnosing diabetes state that patients be told they have diabetes if any of the criteria below applies: Fasting plasma glucose is above 126 mg/dl Diabetes symptoms exist and casual plasma glucose is equal to or above 200 mg/dl or Plasma glucose is equal to or above 200 mg/dl during an oral glucose tolerance test. If any of these test results occurs, testing should be repeated on a different day to confirm the diagnosis.
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