Diabetic Blood Tests

This is a list of blood tests available relating specifically to diabetics. It covers the tests for diagnosing the condition and possibly the root cause. Monitoring the progression of the disease in terms of the onset of the side effects to which diabetics are particularly prone. Also included are tests appropriate for monitoring nutritional status which is an integral part of the treatment.

Sample requirements vary for each test according to the method used to analyse the constituent component. In most cases I have indicated that samples should be frozen. This is the normal requirement when the sample needs to be transported to a reference laboratory because the test is not available in the local facilities.

Serum sample is prepared by first taking a whole blood sample (normally about 10 mL) and waiting half an hour for it to clot. After this the serum, which is the clear yellowish fluid, can be separated by centrifuging the blood. Centrifugation is done at 3,000 rpm for 15 minutes to move the clot to the bottom of the tube and leave the clear serum on top. Then it is easy to pipette out the serum and place it in a clean screw top tube ready for transportation or freezing.

Plasma samples are collected in special colour coded tubes which contain one of the many types of anticoagulants. This prevents the blood from clotting and after careful mixing and centrifugation the plasma can be collected in a plain screw top tube ready for transportation or freezing.

The time taken for analysis of the sample and return of the result. This varies considerably with the method used to investigate the sample. In most cases the tests are fairly routine and are performed once or twice a day. Other tests are more specialised and can take any thing up to a week or two to produce a result. The very rare tests like inborn errors in metabolism or DNA analysis take a month or more.

Reference ranges can vary with each laboratory and with each method used to analyse the constituent component. In many cases other factors must be included in the reference range to account for differences due to age, sex and so on. It is important because of these factors that reference ranges must be supplied with the result in order to have a meaningful interpretation. In the UK the standard is SI units however there are tests which still use the older units. The ranges given here are only a guide taken from one source. The range given on the actual lab result is the one that should be referred to at the time of testing.

This information has been collated from a number of sources and although every attempt has been made to make this information accurate no liability can be accepted from any consequential use of this data.

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Then ---------- ------------> Raymond Harwood