
How are prediabetes and diabetes diagnosed?
To diagnose diabetes or prediabetes, your doctor can choose from the following tests to measure the amount of glucose in your blood:
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Fasting plasma glucose: a blood test to measure your blood glucose after 8 hours of fasting.
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Oral glucose tolerance test: measuring blood glucose while fasted and 2 hours after taking 75 g of glucose.
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Haemoglobin A1c: a measure of the amount of glycated haemoglobin in your blood. Haemoglobin A1c indicates how much glucose you have had in your blood in the preceding 3 months.
For these blood glucose tests, your results may fall in the ‘normal’, ‘prediabetes’ or ‘diabetes’ ranges as shown:
For fasting plasma glucose,
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glucose less than 6.1 mmol/L or 110 mg/dL is normal;
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glucose range between 6.1 mmol/L and 7 mmol/L or between 110 mg/dL and 126 mg/dL is considered prediabetic;
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glucose higher than 7 mmol/L or 126 mg/dL on two separate tests indicates you have diabetes.
For 2-hour plasma glucose after an oral glucose tolerance test,
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glucose less than 7.8 mmol/L or 140 mg/dL is normal;
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glucose ranges between 7.8 mmol/L and 11.1 mmol/L or between 140 mg/dL and 200 mg/dL indicates prediabetes;
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glucose higher than 11.1 mmol/L or 200 mg/dL indicates that you have diabetes.
For Haemoglobin A1c,
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a range between 4% and 5.6% is normal;
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a range between 5.7% and 6.5% is considered prediabetic;
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a value higher than 6.5% means that you have diabetes.