The Fallacy of Average: How Using HbA_1c Alone to Assess Glycemic Control Can Be Misleading.

ABSTRACT: HbA_1c is a valuable metric for comparing treatment groups in a randomized trial, for assessing glycemic trends in a population over time, or for cross-sectional comparisons of glycemic control in different populations. However, what is not widely appreciated is that HbA_1c may not be a good indicator of an individual patient's glycemic control because of the wide range of mean glucose concentrations and glucose profiles that can be associated with a given HbA_1c level. To illustrate this point, we plotted mean glucose measured with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) versus central laboratory-measured HbA_1c in 387 participants in three randomized trials, showing that not infrequently HbA_1c may underestimate or overestimate mean glucos

SUBMITTER: Beck RW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5521971 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature