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Q. Is HbA1c test more reliable than a blood sugar test taken at home?

Answered by
Dr. Saravan Pramod Settipalli
and medically reviewed by iCliniq medical review team.
This is a premium question & answer published on Nov 03, 2017 and last reviewed on: Oct 09, 2018

Hello doctor,

I am a 35-year-old female. Is HbA1c test at a primary physician's lab reliable? I recently got my annual physical and lab tests done at a new primary physician's office (practicing since five years). The results show I have a glucose of 109 mg/dL and hemoglobin A1c of 6.8 %. My TSH is 5.85 uIU/mL and free T4 is 0.5 mg/dL. The doctor emailed me saying I am now diabetic and also hypothyroid. Three weeks ago, I had tested my blood sugar at home and it was 88 mg/dL. Should I see this doctor or another one?

#

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

  • HbA1c will give us information about your blood sugar in the past three months whereas RBS (random blood sugar) will get us information about the previous day. Therefore, HbA1c is more reliable than of RBS.
  • The HbA1c level needs to be less than 6 to be considered as normal and nondiabetic. If it is more than 7, it confirms that you are diabetic.
  • So, I kindly suggest you recheck HbA1c at a different lab.

For more information consult an internal medicine physician online --> https://icliniq.com./ask-a-doctor-online/internal-medicine-physician

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