another oldie!!!
Hi all,
Another oldie, ben injecting since 1951 when I was 4. Things sure
have changed - but was a good excuse at school then if you didn’t
want to do an exam - put you head down on the desk and the teacher
panicked because you were the only diabetic in the school and sent
you to the nurses office!! Been on the pump for 3 months now, still
not perfect at if but getting there. Have a question though, I have
had the HCA1 (or whater they are called that are done every three
months) and have never really worried about the results as before the
pump my BSL’s went from 1.7 to 30.00 sometimes in one day, but am
trying to find out and have had very little success in what the
results actually mean.
Have been told by about 4 emails that it reads the no. of high BSL’s
over a 3 month period because the high BSL’s stick to the red blood
cells and that is how the results are given. Now logically, (to me
anyway maybe not to everyone) if you are given a result of say 5.6%
does that mean that 5.6% of your BSL’s over the 3months are what are
classed as high and that if you were perfectly under control with no
high BSL’s at all you results should be 0%. I do not seem to be able
to get a straight answer from anyone I just keep being told the same
thing that is is only high BSL’s that stick to red blood cells and
that is what the result is. Cany anyone at all explain please.
Thanks in advance
Sue G-B
Sydney
May 28th, 2004 at 4:18 am
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
May 28th, 2004 at 10:54 am
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.