The most important thing a doctor does after suspecting someone has diabetes is to run certain tests. Any such test done to diagnose diabetes is known as a glucose test. But this is only the beginning of the diabetes diagnosis process. For proper and detailed diagnosis if a person is diabetic or not the following requirements are
–Diabetes symptoms
–Physical exam
–Family history
–Glucose test
Doctors always keep in mind that a person who does not have diabetes may have high blood sugar due to illness. In addition, some medications also alter the blood sugar levels of a non-diabetic person.
The following are the important blood glucose tests to determine diabetes.
fasting blood glucose test
The most important diagnostic test is the fasting blood sugar level test. The person has to go through 10-12 hours of fasting. A diabetic person would have a value higher than 127 mg/dl. To be on the safe side, this diagnostic test may be repeated twice. The person who does not suffer from diabetes should have a sugar level of about 90mg/dl.
glucose tolerance test
The second test doctors use to diagnose diabetes is the glucose tolerance test. The person who has to go through this diagnostic test should not eat or drink anything for 10-12 hours except water. First, a blood sample is taken after a 112-hour fast. The tested person is then given water with a massive amount of sugar (either 75 grams or 100 grams of glucose). The blood sample is drawn at regular thirty minute intervals. If the result after 2 hours is less than 110 mg/dl, the person is normal, if it is between 110 mg/dl and 126 mg/dl, the person is said to have impaired fasting glucose, any of the values is higher than 200 mg/dl, it is confirmed that the person is diabetic.
The oral glucose tolerance diabetes test is done by measuring the blood glucose level almost five times in three hours. In a person who is diabetic, after drinking the glucose solution, the blood glucose level rises, but then falls very quickly. In contrast, in a person who does not have diabetes, the glucose level will gradually drop.
Extreme care must be taken when administering this highly concentrated glucose solution, because if administered to a person already suffering from high glucose levels, it can lead to a hyperglycemic condition which can be fatal in some cases.
