• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

What is the highest HbA1c ever recorded?

notafanofsugar

Well-Known Member
Messages
248
Location
Shrewsbury
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
everything good for me! getting better though x
I wanted to know if anyone knew what the highest ever HbA1c recorded was as mine would be lower than that!

Seriously I was just curious though!
 
I asked my consultant what was the highest he had seen and he said 18%!
 
SamJB said:
I asked my consultant what was the highest he had seen and he said 18%!
Click to expand...
ooops maybe it was my blood glucose level that was in 20,s not my hba1c I cant remember properly now
 
Mine was 14.1% at it's worst but quite low compared to some in the high teens by the looks of things.
 
Not sure about % but mine was 71 in Oct 2013 when it was discovered that my T2 was in fact late onset T1.



Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Alan how did they find out yours was late onset type 1...
i habe both type 1 and 2 in my family and the dr hasn't said which type to me
 
Don't know, but given my urine test was off the scale when diagnosed, I imagine my Hba1c at the time would have been in the region of 22-25 or possibly higher. They didn't check it though.
 
Ah these posts are making me feel like the 9% I had a few years ago when my control was poor was alright!
 
My original HBA1C came back at 147 mmol/mol which in old money =15.6% !!
.....and I’m still alive
 
Highest HbA1c for me was 125

Highest blood sugar was 59.6
 
Holy crxp @Cumberland,
That was indeed a high one there! ;o)

Happy you are still with us. Cant recall myself what my own highest might have been, as it was probably back when I was admitted to the hospital the very first time at point of diagnosis? Can recall some of the highest readings I had when I back in the 80ties got switched on to that new amazing rocket science stuff called fast acting insulin and a near-instant bg meter: The meter showed 26 mmol/L and the caring staff clapped their hands and encouragingly expressed: "Wow - not bad at all!"
But clearly not a number to brag too much about as life can indeed become complicated or over all together.

Just looked up "the human medical records" and found the highest ever recorded bg in a human being and surviving it was:
Mr. Michael Patrick Buonocore from the USA, a 7 yo kid who was admitted to the Pocono Emergency Room in Pennsylvania, on 23 March 2008 with a blood sugar level of 147.6 mmol/L. Converting that to a HgAc1 would give you around 85%. Though do recognize you cant just freely convert like that, as the HgAc1 express a sustained average at that very number, which of course most probably is not what that young kid had been through before ending up in the emergency room.
 
Here is a link to an article about this (USA based): https://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine/highest-diabetes-A1C-in-history#5. It is quite a good read.

To summarize, no one seems to know. Making things even hazier, apparently a lot of the diagnostic equipment does not even try to measure levels above 14% -- the dial will simply read ">14%". However, the author of the article says he himself has seen much higher levels (he does not say what those levels are).

The highest that some of the specialist doctors quoted in the article have seen is around 17% to 18% (although one of them saw a 22%). Also, right at the bottom of the article, it explains the mechanism that kicks in at very high A1C levels: the kidneys start to remove the excess glucose. The level at which the kidneys start doing this is called the "renal threshold of glucose" and it varies from one person to another. A really high A1C, apparently, can only happen if the kidneys fail, too....
 

Was in hospital a week until they got my sugars down
 
In the US the 'chart' or range for Hba1C goes to 14 or a three month average of 355. When I was diagnosed (T1) I was literally and figuratively 'off the chart.' I suspect this is not uncommon for T1 diagnosis as many are in critical, DKA stage, when diagnosed.
 
My highest was 83/100 managed to bring it down to 53/100 in for months. Now hovering between 63-58/100 and struggling.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…