Different values for bloods How do you compare

Bluetit1802 said:

There is a conversion chart on this website here http://www.diabetes.co.uk/hba1c-units-converter.html
Your hospital reading of 46 equates to an average of 7.5mmol/l as per your meter.

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phoenix said:

Meter Readings
Your meter reading measures the level of glucose in your blood at the time you take the reading.
As you are in the UK the unit used is mmol/l of blood . .
The target ranges as given by Diabetes UK are here:https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Monitoring/Testing/
If you were in some other countries the reading would be in mg/dl . (so if you come across someone saying their blood glucose was 60 or 90 or 150 or even 450 they are most likely to be using mg/dl. To convert mg/dl to the mmol/l you use then just divide by 18. so those levels would be 3.3, 5,8.3 and 25mmol/l )
HbA1c
The measurement that your doctor is looking at is the HbA1C. This reflects your glucose levels over a period of up to about 3 months.
Glucose in blood can stick to the haemoglobin in your blood. Once fully stuck on it stays there until the time when that cell dies .Red blood cells live for about 3 months. The HbA1c measures the proportion of haemoglobin that has glucose stuck to it. The more that is stuck on (or glycated) the higher your HbA1c will be.
HbA1c units
In the UK this is recorded in mmol/mol.
Up until a couple of years ago when International authorities introduced a new standardisation the unit was the percentage of haemoglobin glycated. When the UK introduced the new standard, they changed the unit to avoid confusion.
(I'm in France and we still use percentage as I think does the US , Australia and NZ use mmol/mol in the same way as the UK)

If you see HbA1c in terms of percentage then you can use this convertor:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/hba1c-units-converter.html
The convertor also includes in the end box an estimated average.
HbA1c; estimated average
Your HbA1c can be used to give an estimated average of your glucose levels over the last 2 or 3 months. (ie what it would be if you measured your glucose all day long and took an average of the results) The calculation comes with a big caveat in that it is estimated . For various reasons, two people with the same real average levels can have very different HbA1cs. If you are an average person though it will be in the right ball park.

43mmol/mol is an estimated average of 7.1 mmol/l
46 mmol/mol is an estimated average of 7.5 mmol/l

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