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Q: How would you confirm or rule out a diagnosis of diabetes?
A: It would be reasonable to either perform a 2-h glucose tolerance test or to ask the patient to stop in 2 hours after lunch to conduct a random glucose measurement and an A1c. The patient agrees to the latter course, and she registers a random glucose value of 235 g/dL and an A1c of 7.1%.
Note: The A1c is not used here as a screening test, but more for ‘staging’ purposes. Once diabetes is confirmed, the A1c can assist in designing the patient’s management plan.
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