What Kind of Tests Monitor Diabetes?

What tests besides A1c do I need to monitor my diabetes?

It's important to remember if you have diabetes that sugar isn't the only thing you are at risk of having an abnormality in. People with diabetes have much more common problems with their blood lipids, blood fats, cholesterol and triglycerides need to be measured and monitored if you have diabetes. People with diabetes are also at higher risk for cardiovascular disease. And there are markers now to talk about vascular inflammation. One of these we call CRP, C- reactive protein that tells us if our body is at a high level of inflammation, perhaps in the blood vessels.

And so, with your doctors help, you should be monitoring not only your blood sugars, and your hemoglobin A1C's, but your blood lipid profiles and your reactivity of your vascular system. And certainly if there are any other medical problems maybe accentuated because of diabetes. They also need to be monitored.

People with diabetes often more at risk for kidney problems, so they need to have, at least periodically, blood tests to measure their kidney function as well as urine test. And they may be of course at more risk of other kinds of abnormalities, like hypertension. We've mentioned eye disease or nervous system disease. Some of those require physical examinations as well as blood testing.