Blood Tests For Diagnosing and Monitoring Diabetes

Blood tests that indicate diabetes will need to be ordered by a primary care physician if a patient develops any of the symptoms of diabetes. These symptoms include extreme thirst, increased hunger, frequent urination, weight loss that is unexplained, and tingling in feet or hands.
To make the diagnosis of either forms of diabetes, the primary care physician will usually order a fasting plasma glucose test. This fasting plasma glucose test commonly called the FPG is the test most frequently ordered to make the diagnosis of diabetes. The patient will be asked to not eat for eight hours before this test. The patient will then have blood taken from the arm and the blood will go to the lab for results to be sent to the doctor. For non-diabetics, blood glucose levels are between 70 to 100 mg/dL. When two FPG tests in a row show levels equal to or greater than 126 mg/dL, a diagnosis of diabetes is usually made.


If the FPG test is normal but the patient has risk factors or are in a risk group for diabetes and exhibit major symptoms of possible diabetes, the physician will probably order a glucose tolerance test just to make certain the patient is not a diabetic. The oral blood glucose test can also be ordered during to make a diagnose gestational diabetes during pregnancy or to diagnose pre-diabetes.
When a person is diagnosed as a diabetic, the person will need to get regular A1c (hemoglobin A1c test) to monitor how well the diabetes treatment ordered by the doctor is controlling the disease. This diabetes blood test monitors the average of blood sugar levels over a 6 to 12 week period and together with home blood glucose monitoring is used to make adjustments to diabetic medications.
Home blood glucose monitoring is an important part of the treatment of diabetes. This involves a tiny prick of the finger or arm to collect a very small drop of blood that can be analyzed by a small glucose monitoring meter. This needs to be done several times a day to see how well diet and medications are working to keep blood sugar at a healthy level. These monitors are made by many different companies and most companies will provide newly diagnosed diabetics with their first monitor free of charge. The doctor's nursing staff will train the diabetic on how to properly use the meter or monitor.
As you can see, once diagnosed with diabetes, blood testing will become an important part of monitoring how effective the treatment ordered by the doctor is managing the disease. Blood testing or monitoring will become a daily part of self care.
Blood tests that indicate diabetes will need to be ordered by a primary care physician if a patient develops any of the symptoms of diabetes. These symptoms include extreme thirst, increased hunger, frequent urination, weight loss that is unexplained, and tingling in feet or hands.

This article is submitted by Ola Martinsson, who just recently got the diagnosis diabetes. Trying to read and understand as much as possible about diabetes. Found an interesting site at http://adviceondiabetes.com with a free ebook including more than 500 diabetes recipes.