Laboratory Diagnosis of HbA1c: A Review

The percentage of glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (% HbA1c) in human whole blood indicates the average plasma glucose concentration over a prolonged period of time and is used to diagnose diabetes. Currently, common laboratory methods to recognize glycated proteins are high-performance liquid chromatography, immunoassay and electrophoresis. The accuracy and the precision of A1c assays at least match those of glucose assays. Consequently, American Diabetes Association, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and the International Diabetes Federation decided that the A1c assay should be recognized as the primary method for diagnosing diabetes. The recent availability of rapid, reliable, and easy-to-perform tests for detecting HbA1c has introduced rapid Diabetes diagnosis. This review thus summarizes the current information on the present and future aspects of diagnostic methods for HbA1c.