Diagnosing Diabetes Using a Single Blood Sample

For diagnosing diabetes, guidelines recommend that clinicians confirm elevated levels of fasting blood glucose (F-BG; ≥126 mg/dL) or high glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1c; ≥6.5%) by repeat testing of an additional blood sample (Diabetes Care 2018; 41[Supp 1]:S13). Investigators used prospective cohort data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study — which involved >13,000 U.S. patients followed for >20 years — to assess the prognostic performance of testing F-BG and HbA_1c in a single-sample blood draw. Diabetes was considered to be confirmed based on use of glucose-lowering medications or physician diagnosis of diabetes during follow-up.

Among 978 patients who had either elevated F-BG levels or elevated HbA_1c levels at baseline evalua…