Before we can go into the effectiveness of diabetes testing, we must understand what diabetes is. Diabetes is our body's way of providing growth and energy. The foods we eat get broken down into glucose, which our body uses as fuel. Glucose enters our bloodstream where it is then utilized for growth and energy. The pancreas produces a hormone called insulin. In order for our cells to use glucose, our blood requires the insulin.



This production moves the glucose from the blood cells to other cells so that it can create energy and growth. If enough insulin is failed to be produced, or our cells do not use it properly, you end up with the disease known as diabetes. Insulin is essential in regulating the body's blood sugar levels.

If left untreated, diabetes can cause serious health issues, and be life threatening. If a person experiences symptoms, they should be tested right away. There are a number of tests to diagnose or rule out diabetes. The sugar level test requires a drop of blood to measure the glucose levels in the blood. This particular test requires a person to fast, which means no food or drink, for at least eight (8) hours prior to testing.

But unfortunately, these tests are not found to be accurate for patients who are already on dialysis. For the hemodialysis patients, the hemoglobin test doesn't prove to be a true glucose control test. Although controlling glucose level is necessary as the high level hardens the arteries thereby leading to more kidney diseases, heart attack, stroke, nerve damage and blindness. In the process of hemodialysis, blood is passed through the artificial kidney machine for cleansing which is used in the case of kidney failure. There is one more test known as peritoneal dialysis often conducted at home in which fluid is passed in to the abdomen. The diabetic dialysis patients have very high blood sugar level and hence A1C test may not prove to be accurate for them.

In the United States alone, it is possible that nearly 200,000 hemodialysis patients, using this testing procedure may not be getting the proper care to control their blood sugar levels. Though this test was once considered the "gold standard", there are issues with the accuracy of the test. Regardless of those issues, this test is still helpful in the care of diabetes patients.

Results, confirmed by testing on Japanese patients, showed that the glycated-albumin test was more accurate than the A1C test for monitoring glucose levels in the blood of hemodialysis patients.

However, it has not been proven how effective the glycated-albumin test is for patients that have kidney failure, but are not yet on dialysis. Nor has the effectiveness been proven for those patients on peritoneal dialysis.