What is fructosamine?
fructosamine is one of the blood tests that can be performed to measure blood glucose levels in people who have diabetes. Many people with this disease control blood glucose daily using a blood sugar meter. However, glucose levels may fluctuate throughout the day and doctors often want to know the overall level of this blood sugar. Glucose control is usually monitored by the Hemoglobin A1C test, which determines the blood sugar in the last three months. A fructosamine test is an alternative test that determines glucose levels in the previous 2-3 weeks. Over time, high sugar levels can seriously damage the kidneys, eyes, legs and cardiovascular system. Therefore, diabetes is treated aggressively, often medicines. In order to determine how well the treatment regimen works, patients generally control their Ugar bloodthy at least once a day with a blood sugar meter. It may seem that glucose levels are ideal at their ideal level, but the levels may change wildly during the day.
To obtain more accurate glucose levels over time, doctors often perform blood tests to assess the average level of glucose for a period of time. Two laboratory tests are commonly performed to check blood glucose levels: Hemoglobin A1C test and fructosamine test. They both measure the amount of glucose that linked to proteins in the blood known as glycated proteins. The amount of these proteins is much higher in people who have poor control of their diabetes. Many factors affect the amount of free blood glucose, but changes in the levels of glycated proteins are much slower and provide much more reproducible values.
Fructosamine measurement detects the reaction product of glucose, which has followed the accessible amine band on protein, such as albumin, for example, provided glycated albumin . This test measures glucose levels over the last 2-3 weeks. It is an alternative to a more common hemoglobin test and1c that can provide false values for patients with blood problems such as haemolytic or sickle anemia.
Other reasons for using this alternative method of hematology include the need to measure blood sugar during pregnancy. Due to the hormonal changes of the mother, women with gestational diabetes can have rapid changes in blood sugar. Doctors want to monitor these changes more often than with a three -month period provided with a standard test. During the fructosamine test, they check blood sugar levels in the last 2-3 weeks.
patients are often subject to changes in their drug. Their blood sugar levels may need to be often checked to determine the effect of these changes. Thefructosamine test is more suitable than a glycated hemoglobin test for measuring rapidly changing glucose levels in these patients.
It is more important to look at trends in assessing fructosamine levels than to analyze an absolute percentage. The levels that reduce, indicate that glucose levelsare served under better control. The increasing levels indicate the opposite. This test is not useful for screening on diabetes. It is not clear at the lower test of the test whether the patient has good diabetic control or whether he is without illness.