Guidelines should include minimum HbA_(1c) value, researchers say

摘要

Diabetes guidelines may need to be revised to include a minimum HbA_(1c) value, according to the authors of a study published online in The Lancet last week (27 January 2010). The retrospective cohort study took place in patients aged 50 years or older. It included data from the UK General Practice Research Database on nearly 48,000 patients with type 2 diabetes, and found that low (<6.7 per cent) as well as high (>9.9 per cent) HbA_(1c) levels were associated with a higher risk of death and cardiac events. An HbA_(1c) of 7.5 per cent was associated with the lowest risk (see Panel).