Carolinas Coastal Health - Glucose - Carolinas Coastal Health

Glucose

This is a measure of the sugar level in your blood. High values are associated with eating before the test, and diabetes.

The normal range for a fasting glucose is 60-99 mg/dl. According to the 2003 ADA criteria, diabetes is diagnosed with a *fasting* plasma glucose of 126 or more. A precursor, Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG) is defined as reading of fasting glucose levels of 100-125. Sometimes a glucose tolerance test, which involves giving you a sugary drink followed by several blood glucose tests, is necessary to properly sort out normal from IFG from diabetes. In addition, the glycohemoglobin may now be used to diagnose diabetes.

Be aware that variations in lab normals exist. Also, Europeans tend to use a two-hour after eating definition of diabetes rather than a fasting glucose. Using the European standards tends to increase the number of people who are classified as having diabetes.