What foreign visitors to Vietnam need to know about diabetes diagnosis and testing

1. A few words about diabetes

Diabetic patients are often divided into two groups, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, with different causes. In addition, some women who get the disease during pregnancy are classified as gestational diabetes. The disease can also appear if you regularly use drugs containing glucocorticoids.

Type 2 diabetes patients may have insulin resistance, which means that the patient's body produces antibodies against insulin, causing the amount of insulin in the blood to decrease, causing hyperglycemia. In addition, some patients are diagnosed with the disease because the amount of insulin produced by the pancreas is too low, not ensuring the metabolism process.

In general, diabetes is a chronic disease, the patient must live with and treat the disease for a long time. If we are lucky enough to detect it early, we will have the opportunity to treat it early and control blood sugar well. So what tests are needed to diagnose diabetes?

2. Methods of diagnosing diabetes

Currently, doctors often combine many different methods to accurately diagnose diabetes. To make an accurate conclusion, doctors will rely on 4 criteria proposed by the American Diabetes Association. Specifically, the 4 criteria are: FPG - fasting plasma glucose index, OGTT: plasma glucose index after 2 hours since the patient takes glucose orally, HbA1c index and glucose index at any time, ...

Thus, in addition to diagnosis based on clinical symptoms, the doctor will ask the patient to perform some tests. Based on the test results, we can determine the patient's blood sugar index at different times and draw the most accurate conclusion.

3. Sharing corner: What tests are needed to diagnose diabetes?

As analyzed above, to determine the risk of diabetes, the doctor needs to rely on the test results of the person suspected of having diabetes. So what tests are needed to diagnose diabetes?

3.1. Urine glucose test

Most patients will be assigned to perform a urine sugar test, also known as a urine glucose test. The main purpose is to screen for the risk of diabetes. If the kidney's threshold for glucose is higher than 10mmol/L, you should be cautious. This may be a warning sign of diabetes risk.

This is a simple test method, giving quick results. However, we should combine many other testing methods to make an accurate diagnosis. Because, some people have a relatively low glomerular filtration threshold but they do not have diabetes.

3.2. Fasting glucose quantitative test

If you are wondering: what test is needed to diagnose diabetes, the answer is the fasting glucose test. Normally, the blood sugar of a healthy person will fluctuate from 4.4 - 5 mmol/L.

When tested, if this index reaches 6.5 - 7 mmol/L, or even higher than 7 mmol/L, the patient is very likely to have diabetes. It is best to proactively perform hyperglycemia tests to get the most accurate results.

3.3. Random glucose quantitative test

Based on the criteria of the American Diabetes Association, people suspected of having the disease should have a glucose test at any time. In case the blood sugar index is higher than 11.1 mmol/L, the patient should do other tests to determine whether he or she has diabetes.

For this test, the doctor may take a centrifuged blood sample that has separated the plasma for testing. Additionally, in some hospitals, a random glucose test is performed on a personal blood glucose meter.

3.4. Test after oral glucose tolerance

When prescribed an oral glucose tolerance test, the patient should fast from the night before. At the same time, before performing the test, the patient will be instructed to consume about 150 - 200g of carbohydrates per day to serve the testing process.

About 2 hours before the test, the patient is asked to drink about 300ml of water mixed with 75g of glucose. If the test results show that the blood sugar index is higher than 200 mmol/L, the patient has diabetes and needs timely treatment.

If you still have questions: what tests are needed to diagnose diabetes, you can refer to some other methods, for example: HbA1C quantitative test or intravenous glucose tolerance test...

If you are a foreigner who needs to use medical services while traveling in Vietnam, your medical benefits will be supported as Vietnamese citizens. To ensure your medical benefits are best guaranteed, you should go with an interpreter to exchange and receive information fully and effectively.

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