AIC test and diabetes - Essay Example

From this study, it was found that A1C level of a patient provides a reliable measure of controlling chronic glycemia without the need for a timed sample or fasting, and it correlates highly with the long-term risk of diabetes-related complications and mortality. Most important, this test tool is more effective in detecting undiagnosed diabetes and there is a higher potentiality of using the measurements of AIC levels to screen type 2 diabetes (Choi et al, 2011). How the new tool can be integrated into practice It has been found that AIC test is not recommended for diagnosing diabetes among adolescents with diabetes.

The conventional fasting plasma glucose test in which a patient is put on fast for 8 hours prior to testing has been found to detect more undiagnosed cases of diabetes among adolescents compared to the AIC test. The suitability of this among children is still debatable. For example, the American Diabetes Association has given guidelines on how it can be used in children yet researchers from Michigan University caution against the same. The AIC test tool is therefore best applicable to adults.

This suitability is supported by research which indicates that AIC test is more sensitive in diagnosing adults accurately compared to adolescents. The application of the findings of this study to adults simply entails making a shift from the use of the fasting blood glucose tests to using AIC tests when diagnosing diabetes among adults.. The AIC test enables physicians diagnose patients who are diabetic faster and more comprehensively. Because of this, the AIC test can be used to increase the number of adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and thus the number of people with diabetes who receive timely intervention to reduce the complications and clinical implications of the disease.

This will particularly be important in diagnosing asymptomatic patients because of the accuracy of obtaining glucose levels. The result of this will be the reduction of diabetic patients, especially asymptomatic patients, who suffer from multiple organs systems failure due to late diagnosis. This application is important because there is a rapid increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Less than 13% of adults in the US and Asia have been diagnosed with this type 2 diabetes. Among the newly diagnosed patients, 25% already had microvascular complications, indicating a 6- to 7-year time lag that exists between the onset of type 2 diabetes and its diagnosis.

The second application of the AIC test among adults is making predictions of diabetes for purposes of timely management. The AIC test is more powerful in identifying people who are at a high risk of becoming diabetic in future or who have undiagnosed diabetes. The use of AIC test will therefore be useful in increasing the prediction of new-onset diabetes among adults and thus the number of people that are likely to be on diabetes prevention and management programs.  This application is vital because when taking into consideration the clinical implications and complications of diabetes, it is of paramount importance to identify people with who are at a high risk of becoming diabetic in future or who have undiagnosed