BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

Spiking diabetes

October 16, 2008 7:00 AM UTC

U.S. and Australian researchers have unraveled a mechanism that could explain the correlation between transient spikes in glucose levels and an increased risk for cardiovascular complications in diabetes patients.1 The findings could change the way that diabetes is treated and monitored because standard glucose monitoring often fails to detect these fluctuations.

The current standard measure of blood glucose control involves determining levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) over time. HbA1c is the amount of hemoglobin in the blood that has bound to glucose and is typically established by calculating a time-averaged area under the time curve of HbA1c concentrations.2 According to the American Diabetes Association, doctors should measure a patient's HbA1c at least twice a year...