Fasting for at least eight hours before providing a blood sample for glucose evaluation is essential for obtaining a meaningful result. In addition to diabetes, chronic renal failure, pancreatic cancer and some drugs can cause elevated glucose levels. Hypothyroidism, starvation and extensive liver disease can cause low blood glucose levels. Understanding your glucose test results is essential for realizing your risk factors for diabetes and heart disease.
Instructions
1. Look at the name of the test the lab report has. There are two glucose tests the doctors use to evaluate your glucose health, the fasting glucose test and the oral glucose tolerance test. The fasting glucose test is a measurement of your blood glucose after you refrain from eating and drinking anything but water for at least eight hours before testing. The oral glucose tolerance test starts by obtaining a fasting specimen glucose for a base line, and then goes on to measure your body's mechanism for handling the glucose you ingest in the form of sugar syrup. If you are pregnant and getting evaluated for gestational diabetes, the test is similar to the oral glucose tolerance test , using a different sugar drink concentration.
2. Search your report for the glucose value the laboratory obtained. If this is a fasting glucose test, the report displays a singe value. If it is an oral glucose tolerance test, the report may display two values: a base line and a two-hour post glucose drink glucose value. If it is an evaluation for gestational diabetes, the report can have from one to four values depending on whether it is a challenge or diagnostic test.
3. Compare the result of your glucose test to the normal ranges in the lab report. For fasting glucose, a 70 to 99 mg/dl is considered normal. A fasting glucose of 126 mg/dl or higher indicates the possibility for diabetes diagnosis. The normal range for glucose after two hours of drinking the glucose drink in an oral glucose tolerance test is less than 140 mg/dl. A higher glucose value diagnosis pre-diabetes (up to 200 mg/dl) and diabetes (glucose greater than 200 mg/dl). The glucose challenge test for gestational diabetes screening uses a 130 or 140 mg/dl glucose value cut-off depending on the lab. A glucose value that is higher than the cut-off level warrants further testing for diagnosing gestational diabetes.
Tags: fasting glucose, glucose test, glucose tolerance, glucose tolerance test, glucose value
