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Type 2 Thalassemia Trait/Blood Testing?

E

EdViola

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi all. This appeared in the news thread yesterday:

sickle-cell-trait-could-affect-diabetes-diagnosis-results-in-hba1c-test-92107151

So, I have thalassemia trait, and I've recently been diagnosed Type 2. So I'm keeping the carbs to 20g a day. But my blood glucose machine only reports about 5.something before meals, 6.something 90 minutes after even quite a big (low carb) meal. Very occasionally 7.something. I was wondering if the machine was dodgy - but this might also be an explanation? Does anyone have any experience with this, or point me towards any more info? Is my machine UNDER-reporting, or did the GP's blood test OVER-report? Or, have I had type 2 for ages and it's been masked in the GP's blood tests by the thalassemia trait? If anyone has any experience which can cut through this confusion I'd be grateful - thanks.
 
It is quite well known that anaemia affects hba1c test results, so if you do some Googling on 'anaemia + HbA1c' that may help.

There is also an alternative test that can be used. I believe it is called the Fructosamine test (but not 100% sure about that). I've no idea if you doc would be willing to try it and see if it sheds some light on your situation.

Hope that helps.
 
Last edited:
I have Thalassemia as well and a kind friend of mine did some research on it and found an article relating to the condition which dates later than this post. So I thought I'd share it here as well
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30146829

The article was posted by Clin Lab. 2018 Jul 1;64(7):1171-1175. doi: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2018.180119.
 
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