I am trying to find out what "fructosamine" is, and what the implications of various levels of it are (e.g. being out of the normal range of 1.8 - 2.5)?
Thanks.
REPLY:
Fructosamine is a marker used in the management of diabetes. Diabetics can be monitored for the amount of glucose in their blood or urine but this provides only a measurement specific to that moment. Other markers of diabetic control allow physicians and patients to look back and see if over a given period of time blood glucose has been at or near the normal range which is the desirable result. Glycosylated hemoglobin is a commonly used test which tells physicians whether diabetics have been well controlled and it looks back over a period of time of weeks to months.
The fructosamine assay measures blood glucose control over one to two weeks. One reference I found (see citation below) in the abstract states that "fructosamine should be reserved for exceptional situations in which blood glucose control over one to two weeks must be assessed or in patients with a hemoglobinopathy." The same paper stated that: "Glycosylated hemoglobin is the preferred test and should be routinely monitored. Patients with diabetes should be advised of their present GH level and the preferred goal."
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Dr. Bruce Sckolnick
Reference is:
Mendlovic DB; Whitehouse FW; Foreback CC
The why and wherefore of fructosamine.
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Henry Ford Hospital.
REVIEW ARTICLE: 13 REFS.
Henry Ford Hosp Med J 1992;40(1-2):149-51
Unique Identifier: 93053755
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