Glycated Albumin (GA): A Diagnostic Tool For Diabetes Mellitus (DM)

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a worldwide healthcare issue, with the number of diabetic patients continuing to increase due to a number of factors like population growth, aging, urbanization and increasing prevalence of obesity and physiological inactivity. The implementation of monitoring of glycemic control is essential in the management of DM. Existing diagnosing methods include fasting plasma glucose or, oral glucose tolerance test, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) and glycated albumin (GA). WHO now recommends that HbA1C testing is mainly used for monitoring blood sugar control in diabetic patients. The concept of estimating serum GA is proving to be an important tool in assessing short term glycemic control of diabetic patients. The turnover of serum albumin is rapid (15-20 days), and GA level is believed to reflect the glycemic change over a 2-week period as compared to HbA1C which is of about 120 days. The increased levels of glycated albumin associated with DM reflect of various diabetes complications. It has become clear that glycated albumin plays a dual role: as an indicator or marker of intermediate glycation, and as a causative agent of the damage of diabetes complications.