Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

DIABETES

Diagnosing diabetes mellitus — best practices still unclear

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 14, pages 572–573 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Current recommendations for diagnosing diabetes mellitus require confirmation of an abnormal fasting plasma glucose level or elevated HbA1c level, with repeated testing. Elizabeth Selvin and colleagues have examined the effectiveness of measuring plasma levels of glucose and HbA1c simultaneously for diagnosing diabetes mellitus and conclude that the confirmed combination is acceptable.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. International Expert Committee. International Expert Committee report on the role of the A1C assay in the diagnosis of diabetes. Diabetes Care 32, 1327–1334 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Vistesen, D. et al. Bimodal distribution of glucose is not universally useful for diagnosing diabetes. Diabetes Care 32, 397–403 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. The Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus. Report of the Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus. Diabetes Care 20, 1183–1197 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Colagiuri, S. et al. Glycemic thresholds for diabetes-specific retinopathy: implications for diagnostic criteria for diabetes. Diabetes Care 34, 145–150 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Rohlfing, C. et al. Biological variation of glycohemoglobin. Diabetes Care 48, 116–118 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bruns, D. E. & Knowler, W. C. Stabilization of glucose in blood samples: why it matters. Clin. Chem. 55, 850–852 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Selvin, E. et al. Prognostic implications of single-sample confirmatory testing for undiagnosed diabetes. Ann. Int. Med. https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-0091 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Barr, R. G. et al. Tests of glycemia for the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Ann. Int. Med. 137, 236–272 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Diabetes Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    David M. Nathan

Authors
  1. David M. Nathan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David M. Nathan.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

D.M.N. is evaluating a point-of-care HbA1c assay device as part of an investigator-initiated study funded by the manufacturer, Alere, Inc.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nathan, D.M. Diagnosing diabetes mellitus — best practices still unclear. Nat Rev Endocrinol 14, 572–573 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-018-0072-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-018-0072-7

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing