Comments on: another oldie!!! http://www.diabetic.netslonguirado.com/2004/05/27/another-oldie/ Blog for the diabetics who use an insulin pump to control diabetes Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:52:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: carmen15 http://www.diabetic.netslonguirado.com/2004/05/27/another-oldie/#comment-23677 carmen15 Fri, 28 May 2004 07:54:44 +0000 http://www.diabetic.netslonguirado.com/2004/05/27/another-oldie/#comment-23677 Hi Sue: wow! Sydney, Australia! I'm here in Queens, New York, USA. Hemoglobin A1C or glycated hemoglobin. Easiest way to explain it ...if you think of a Red Blood Cell (RBC) sort of like a little sponge-truck on wheels...as glucose levels rise and stay elevated, the sponges soak up more glucose....get saturated...sort of like pouring more glucose into the sponge. Over time they get too fat with glucose....so consider them sloshing all over with glucose. The HgA1C measures how much glucose is soaked into the RBC. I don't know what parameters you use in Sydney to measure glucose...do you use milligrams per decilitre (mg/dL)? or minimolls? We use the A1C to see how well controlled the bgs have been. Everyone runs high levels at times, just non-diabetics crank up their own insulin, and cover it, where we can't. So the A1C is checked every 3 months to see just how well we are doing. <!--more--> Fructosamine levels give an average for over a 2-4 week period. And a C-peptide tells you whether you are producing any insulin of your own. I suggest you log on to www.diabeteswell.com and take a look at the E-news and all the other good stuff on the site. I think it will help answer a lot of questions you have about pumping and diabetes in general. But just keep asking away! I'm sure everyone will pipe in!!! Joan:) pumping 1+years, Disetronic, RNC, soon to be Nurse Practitioner and hopefully Certified Diabetes Educator. Hi Sue:
wow! Sydney, Australia! I’m here in Queens, New York, USA.
Hemoglobin A1C or glycated hemoglobin. Easiest way to explain it …if you
think of a Red Blood Cell (RBC) sort of like a little sponge-truck on
wheels…as glucose levels rise and stay elevated, the sponges soak up more
glucose….get saturated…sort of like pouring more glucose into the sponge.
Over time they get too fat with glucose….so consider them sloshing all
over with glucose. The HgA1C measures how much glucose is soaked into the
RBC.
I don’t know what parameters you use in Sydney to measure glucose…do you
use milligrams per decilitre (mg/dL)? or minimolls?
We use the A1C to see how well controlled the bgs have been. Everyone runs
high levels at times, just non-diabetics crank up their own insulin, and
cover it, where we can’t. So the A1C is checked every 3 months to see just
how well we are doing.

Fructosamine levels give an average for over a 2-4 week period. And a
C-peptide tells you whether you are producing any insulin of your own.
I suggest you log on to www.diabeteswell.com and take a look at the E-news
and all the other good stuff on the site. I think it will help answer a lot
of questions you have about pumping and diabetes in general. But just keep
asking away! I’m sure everyone will pipe in!!! Joan:) pumping
1+years, Disetronic, RNC, soon to be Nurse Practitioner and hopefully
Certified Diabetes Educator.

]]> By: poole_110 http://www.diabetic.netslonguirado.com/2004/05/27/another-oldie/#comment-23676 poole_110 Fri, 28 May 2004 01:18:47 +0000 http://www.diabetic.netslonguirado.com/2004/05/27/another-oldie/#comment-23676 By measuring the percentage of Hemoglobin-A1 (with respect to the total amount of Hemoglobin-A + Hemoglobin-A1) in the blood stream, you are able to determine how far over the average your blood glucose levels are going. In a non diabetic the percentage of HEmoglobin-A1 should be about 4-6 percent. If this number is higher (say 10 percent) it means that on average your blood glucose levels were much higher than they should be. However, this does NOT indicate if the were consistently high, or if there were several very large spikes, or anything USEFUL like that... It's just a general performance indicator. The reason they are typically done on 3-month windows is that the red blood cells in your body (and hence <!--more--> your supply of hemoglubin-a/a1) is recycled about every 3-months. Therefore, if some hemoglobin-A is glycosylated into hemoglobin-a1 in january, it should be gone from your system and replace with a normally functioning red blood cell (containing hemoglubin-a) by around april. Hope this helps! -Sara By measuring the percentage of Hemoglobin-A1 (with
respect to the total amount of Hemoglobin-A +
Hemoglobin-A1) in the blood stream, you are able to
determine how far over the average your blood glucose
levels are going. In a non diabetic the percentage of
HEmoglobin-A1 should be about 4-6 percent. If this
number is higher (say 10 percent) it means that on
average your blood glucose levels were much higher than
they should be. However, this does NOT indicate if the
were consistently high, or if there were several very
large spikes, or anything USEFUL like that… It’s just
a general performance indicator.

The reason they are typically done on 3-month windows
is that the red blood cells in your body (and hence

your supply of hemoglubin-a/a1) is recycled about every
3-months. Therefore, if some hemoglobin-A is
glycosylated into hemoglobin-a1 in january, it should
be gone from your system and replace with a normally
functioning red blood cell (containing hemoglubin-a) by
around april.

Hope this helps!

-Sara

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