Diagnosing Diabetes
How is Diabetes Diagnosed in Transplant Patients?
In the transplant process, everyone's blood sugars are different and sometimes unpredictable. The disease progression and / or medications used to treat the disease may cause blood sugars to run higher or lower than usual.
Good blood sugar levels are important to decrease risk of infection, improve nutrition and promote heart health. All of these things also help your transplant to function well for as long as possible.
Transplant programs follow recommendations by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) that all individuals age 45 and above, particularly those with a BMI equal to or greater than 25, should be tested for diabetes. If the result is normal, this test should be repeated every year.
Testing should be done earlier in individuals who have the following diabetes risk factors:
- Overweight (BMI equal to or greater than 25)
- Have a parents or sibling with diabetes
- Are members of a high-risk ethnic population (African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Asian American or Pacific Islander)
- Have delivered a baby weighing more than 9 pounds or have had gestational diabetes
- Have HDL cholesterol levels 35 mg/dl or lower and / or a triglyceride level greater than 250 mg/dl
- Have high blood pressure
- On previous testing, had impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose
- Fasting plasma glucose is greater than 126 mg/dl
- Diabetes symptoms exist and casual plasma glucose is above 200 mg/dl
or - Plasma glucose is 200 mg/dl or greater during an oral glucose tolerance test
If any of these test results occurs, testing should be repeated on a different day to confirm the diagnosis.
If a casual plasma glucose equal to 200 mg/dl or above is detected, the confirming test to be performed should be a fasting plasma glucose or an oral glucose tolerance test.
It is important to communicate with your transplant team if you have concerns about your blood glucose ranges.