WEBINAR: Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Diabetes: Current Practice

Sponsored by: Abbott Molecular Diagnostic, Abbott Molecular Diagnostic

Speakers

Cas Weykamp, PhD

Clinical Chemist and Director , MCA laboratory of the Queen Beatrix Hospital
BIOGRAPHY
Garry John, PhD

Clinical Biochemist
BIOGRAPHY

Event Date & Time

DATE: November 19, 2015
TIME: 7:00AM Pacific, 9:00AM Central, 10:00AM Eastern, 3:00PM GMT

Abstract

Diabetes represents a serious global epidemic. Diabetes causes its own direct adverse effects but also predisposes patients to the development of both cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Identifying individuals at risk of developing diabetes and monitoring glycemic control of patients with the disease are medical imperatives. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is a marker well established and routinely used for the monitoring of long term glycemia. Improvements in the analytical performance of HbA1c assays now allow the test to be effectively used for risk assessment in order to prevent individuals from developing the disease. Traditional methods such as fasting blood glucose, two-hour postprandial glucose, and the glucose tolerance test continue to be used for diagnosis but HbA1c offers unique advantages (e.g., no need for a fasting sample, reflect the average blood glucose of a three month period, etc.).

Since the late 1970’s large numbers of HbA1c methods have been introduced into clinical practice, but there was obviously a significant difference in the results produced by different laboratories. Lack of standardization resulted in several countries developing National Standardization Programs including US (NGSP; National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program), Japan and Sweden. The IFCC (International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine) implemented the international standardization for HbA1c. Significant work has been done by each of these standardization programs and there remains a need to implement a harmonized procedure for reporting HbA1c measurements.

During today’s webcast, we will learn about the nature of HbA1c formation, the outcomes of standardization efforts, and the quality of its measurements which are key to its use in clinical practice for either monitoring or diagnosis.

Who Should Attend:

Laboratorians
Endocrinologists
Clinicians
Metabolic Specialists

Learning Objectives:

Understand how and why glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is formed.
Explain how the concentration of HbA1c corresponds to a patients glycemic control (average blood glucose concentration).
Identify the adverse effects of diabetes.
Compare and contrast the traditional means of diagnosing diabetes (fasting blood glucose, two hour postprandial glucose, and glucose tolerance test) with HbA1c.
Describe the international reference measurement system (RMS) for HbA1c.