What is Diabetes and Diagnosis of Diabetes

24 Jun

Posted by admin as Diagnosis

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. People with diabetes have problems converting food to energy. After a meal, food is broken down into a sugar called glucose, which is carried by the blood to cells throughout the body. Cells use insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas, to help them convert blood glucose into energy.

Diagnosis of diabetes

Before the late 1970s, there was no consensus on the diagnostic criteria for diabetes. This led to much confusion and precluded any meaningful comparison of the prevalence of diabetes within or between populations (West, 1975). In 1965 the World Health Organization (WHO) prepared its first expert report on the diagnosis of diabetes, and these diagnostic criteria were subsequently modified and simplified by the WHO and the National Diabetes Group in the USA in 1979, 1980 and 1985. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) then proposed diagnostic criteria that placed a greater emphasis on fasting blood glucose concentration

Type 2 diabetes is often diagnosed in a doctor’s office or other outpatient setting after chronic infection or other initial symptoms raise the suspicion of diabetes. Less frequently, a diagnosis is made in a hospital or emergency room after the extremely high blood glucose levels of undetected diabetes causes severe illness.

Fasting Blood Glucose (Blood Sugar) Level:

The “gold standard” for diagnosing diabetes is an elevated blood sugar level after an overnight fast (not eating anything after midnight). A value above 140 mg/dl on at least two occasions typically means a person has diabetes. Normal people have fasting sugar levels that generally run between 70-110 mg/dl.

An oral glucose tolerance test measures your blood glucose after you have gone at least 8 hours without eating and 2 hours after you drink a glucose-containing beverage. This test can be used to diagnose diabetes or pre-diabetes.

Random Glucose: Finally, a person with symptoms that are typical of diabetes may have a blood glucose reading taken at random, even after a meal. If the level is greater than 11, the diagnosis of diabetes can also be made.

Laboratory Diagnosis

The laboratory diagnosis of diabetes depends on finding glucose in the urine together with an elevated blood sugar. The newest routine diagnostic test for diabetes is a fasting plasma glucose test rather than the previously preferred oral glucose tolerance test. A confirmed fasting plasma glucose value of greater than or equal to 126 mg/dl indicates a diagnosis of diabetes.

MRI scan

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a scan that uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to produce images of the inside of your body, including your brain.

You may have to have an MRI scan if your GP or endocrinologist thinks that you have cranial diabetes insipidus as a result of damage to your hypothalamus, or pituitary gland.

A diagnosis of gestational diabetes:

Gestational diabetes is diagnosed with a 50 gram glucose screening test, which involves drinking a glucose drink followed by measurement of the blood sugar level after one hour.