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Hba1c (or any combination, I always forget)

sparkyrich

sparkyrich

Well-Known Member
Messages
197
Hi, I've been browsing the boards for a while and I've noticed a lot of people say they wait for a few days for their test results.
At my surgery the DN whips some red stuff out of me, sticks it in a machine and...leeching! Within 5 minutes she tells me my results.
Does this mean my health centre is cutting edge with the latest machines and procedures OR does it mean someone's extracting the other sample stuff and fiddling the results?
I ask because after I'd been testing myself for a while and figured I'd got a bit of a handle on the old diabetes, I stopped testing cos the hba1c numbers seemed to say I was doing ok. Now, if those results are possibly duff, I'm gonna start testing again.
It's review time in a couple of weeks so I think I'll be asking the DN


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
I have to wit abt a week for results come back...I understand they are sent off for testing....you must be very high tech ;)
 
Sounds like the test you are describing is similar to finger tests that you can do yourself, the hba1c is a three month average test and as far as I'm aware has to be sent to the lab, I may be wrong though, ask your dn as you say :)
 
From what I read online many of the hospital depts. in the UK use 'instant' testing machines. If you google, you will find various models on the market. They cost about £3,500 +disposables. It's probably a good investment for a large practice.
(accuracy, don't know but they would presumably have satisfy regulators here (and in the US where they are also used)
 
I go to the hospital for my check up/hba1c, they used to use the machine you're talking about and do it there and then, but now they get me to have full bloods done about a week or so before my appt so they're ready when I go. They just do the hba1c from the same bloods I guess.
 
Certainly not cutting edge technology Sparkyrich, my hospital diabetes clinic were using this machine as far back as 8-10 years ago, they don't use it now as you have to have bloods taken a week before at your gp surgery.
 
When I have my HbA1c checked it is a finger prick. They put it into a machine and I get the results in 10 minutes, while I am with the Doctor so we can talk about it. I have full blood works once a year then they do the HbA1c at the same time.
 
Quo-Test HbA1c analyser:-
A fully automatic analyser that uses patented boronate fluorescence quenching technology to measure HbA1c from a four microlitre sample taken from a finger prick or venous blood. Sample results are available within four minutes and up to 7,000 patient readings can be stored on the instrument.
 
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