Diagnosis and Monitoring Diabetes

• Blood Tests

Blood glucose tests are also used to indicate whe5ther or not you have too much or not enough sugar in your blood and whether or not ketones are present. If you are curious about the numbers you hear or read, ask your doctor to explain your test results to you. Comparing blood test results with others, however, is not a good idea, because different blood tests yield different results.
The easiest and fastest procedure for measuring glucose and ketones in the blood is to use plastic or paper strips like those used in urine tests. These strips give a range, not an exact value. Other methods, called reagent kits and rapid analytical systems, are also used by many physicians. These tests use chemicals to test blood samples in a rapid single-step process.

Which is Better? Urine-Sugar or Blood-Sugar Test • Urine or blood sugar tests are the commonest test performed to know the state of diabetic control. • Blood contains some amount of sugar (80 to 140 mg%) round the clock, since certain tissues like brain cannot survive without readily available glucose. • When the blood sugar exceeds, 180 mg% sugar appears in urine. Urine test is only a rough guide, e.g. if there is no sugar in urine it can only mean that blood sugar at that time is less than 180 mg% (it can be anything 60 to 180 mg%). Urine sugar approximates with blood sugar in the ways mentioned below. Urine Sugar Blood Sugar (mg%) + 200 + + 250 + + + 300 + + + + 350 • Since urine is secreted drop by the kidney and stored in bladder to be evacuated at longer intervals, if we wish to correlate unine sugar with blood sugar level we must test second sample of urine-i.e. evacuate the bladder, dicard it and pass urine after half an hour, test that sample. It will give better idea of blood sugar level at that time. • Blood sugar is more accurate parameter for assessing control of diabetes.

Blood glucose concentration is one of the best measurements of the presence of diabetes as well as diabetic control. But, because this test measures the blood glucose level at only one instant, it may not represent your usual condition. For example, a trip to your doctor's office can cause stress that can result in an abnormally high glucose value. Blood sugar is affected by the food eaten, the amount of time after or before eating, and activity and stress. A sample taken within two hours after you have eaten gives the most sensitive results after a measured glucose intake. Evaluating your fasting or before glucose intake level indicates the extent to which carbohydrates from your last meal have been removed from your bloodstream. The fasting glucose concentration is the measure of blood sugar after a lack of intake for more than four hours or overnight. If you have diabetes, your glucose concentration is usually lowest in this state.