HbA1c: an old friend in new clothes

Equivalent DCCT-aligned and IFCC-standardised values

DCCT=Diabetes Control and Complications Trial. 

IFCC=International Federation of Clinical Chemistry.

 

In the recent past the importance of measuring HBA1c is recognized at various levels in the management of diabetic people. But there is concern about the reliability of the HBA1c done from different laboratories which is variable between 3% to 14%. IFCC standardized the value as mmol/mol and said that it should be less than 48 mmol/mol to say some is non diabetic that is equal to <6.5gm%. It is said that in future we will be using this measure in all the studies and clinical practice to avoid the variations in the older measurement of HBA1c. We need to wait and see in India for this change. This paper is presented in the Lancet 30 April 2011