Hemoglobin A 1c -Using Epidemiology to Guide Medical Practice: Kelly West Award Lecture 2020.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review and lecture without systematic search methods or primary data
PubMed 34548283 · doi:10.2337/dci21-0035
What was done
Narrative review and award lecture summarizing epidemiological and clinical trial evidence supporting hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) for diabetes diagnosis, glycemic monitoring, microvascular complication risk, and alternative glycemic markers.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical data or effect sizes. It qualitatively describes HbA1c as reflecting 2-3 months of glucose exposure with low within-person variability, noting established links to microvascular complications and clinical trials showing risk reduction from lowering HbA1c, alongside limitations in patients with hemoglobin variants or altered red blood cell turnover.
Why it matters
Synthesizes the clinical epidemiology establishing HbA1c as the primary biomarker for diabetes care while identifying clinical scenarios where alternative testing is necessary.
Limits
Narrative review design without systematic search methods, quantitative synthesis, or original data. The abstract provides no specific numerical values, diagnostic cutoffs, or effect estimates.
Cited by
- supports Hemoglobin A1C reflects an individual's average blood sugar levels over the preceding three months.