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:

• 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.

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For these blood glucose tests, your results may fall in the ‘normal’, ‘prediabetes’ or ‘diabetes’ ranges as shown:

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For fasting plasma glucose,

• 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.

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For 2-hour plasma glucose after an oral glucose tolerance test,

• 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,

• 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.

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