Correlation between fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin in non-insulin treated type 2 diabetic subjects

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) comprises a group of common metabolic disorders that share phenotype of hyperglycemia. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the correlation between glucose monitoring by fasting blood glucose or two hours postprandial blood glucose with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in type 2 diabetic patients. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted over a period of six month in the Department of Biochemistry. Institute of Medical, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Sixty inpatients with Diabetes mellitus type 2 were assessed for daily fasting and postprandial blood sugar for 15 consecutive days. HbA1c was measured on the 15th day. Result: Both postprandial blood glucose and fasting blood glucose significantly correlated with HbA1c. Postprandial blood glucose showed better correlation to HbA1c than fasting blood glucose (r = 0.630, P <0.001 vs. r =0.452, P = 0.05). Conclusion: These results show that postprandial blood glucose correlated better than fasting blood glucose to HbA1c. Thus, postprandial blood glucose predicted overall glycemic control better than fasting blood glucose. This finding has potential implications for treatment and monitoring of metabolic control in type-2 diabetes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/stcj.v1i1.8654 Sunsari Technical College Journal Vol.1(1) 2012 18-21