Diabetes diagnosis with Randox Reagents
Diabetes diagnosis with Randox Reagents
The prevalence of diabetes is steadily increasing across the world, with approximately 422million people worldwide with diabetes and is currently one of the leading causes of death in the world. A diabetes diagnosis comes in three forms; Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Gestational Diabetes. Each type of diabetes can have long-term, detrimental effects to your health if it is not controlled, with some of the key complications being heart disease, kidney damage, retinopathy and even limb amputations.
Diabetes can be controlled through maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise, however in situations where complications occur, innovative testing can aid in the prevention and management of detrimental consequences to patients. Randox Reagents offer a range of high performance and unique tests which can be used to manage complications of diabetes such as:
Diabetic Nephropathy
Kidney disease is a life threatening complication of diabetes, commonly called diabetic nephropathy in patients with diabetes. Around 40% of people with diabetes develop diabetic nephropathy, characterised through prolonged periods of high glucose levels in the blood. To effectively monitor diabetic nephropathy, it is essential to test cystatin C levels in patients, which is a useful indicator of renal function in patients where creatinine measurements are unreliable. Unlike creatinine, cystatin C does not have a ‘blind area’ – up to 50% of renal function can be lost before significant creatinine elevation occurs. This makes cystatin C capable of detecting early stage kidney dysfunction in patients with diabetic nephropathy.
Microalbumin testing is also important to identify patients with diabetic nephropathy approximately 5-10 years earlier than proteinuria tests, helping to reduce the incidence of end stage renal disease. This is because low albumin concentrations in the urine are the earliest market of renal damage and therefore enable preventative measures to be taken.
Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is a severe complications of uncontrolled diabetes which contains a number of conditions which occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Metabolic syndrome can be monitored through measuring Non-Esterified Fatty Acids (NEFA), which are molecules released from triglycerides by the action of the enzyme lipase and are transported in the blood bound to albumin. NEFA contributes a small proportion of the body’s fat, however they provide a large part of its energy, with elevated concentrations having adverse effects on both carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.
With the global burden of diabetes rising year on year, diabetes complications monitoring has never been more important. Randox Reagents offer a wide range of innovative testing to laboratories, to help clinicians accurately diagnose and monitor diabetes complications.
Download our diabetes brochures to find out about our full range of diabetes reagents
Randox reagents are available for a wide range of clinical chemistry analysers. For more information, please contact reagents@randox.com
Innovations in Gestational Diabetes testing
More and more women in the United States are waiting until they’re older to start having children.
The number of births to women aged 45–49 rose 14% in 2013 from 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics Report. With this comes the responsibility by clinicians and laboratories to better assess those at risk of gestational diabetes and to aid better control of the condition for those who already have it. Quick and precise detection of risk of gestational diabetes and associated complications by clinical labs will provide women with the autonomy to take control of their maternal health.
Innovations in maternal health testing have meant that analysis such as adiponectin and enzymatic fructosamine are now available in automated biochemistry formats and with more accurate methodologies; allowing laboratories to assess gestational diabetes risk, and evaluate control of the condition with ease, speed and accuracy. Testing of such analytes have historically been non-routine and not easily accessible for clinical laboratories, and now with little adjustment within the laboratory, these can be added to the test menu allowing for detailed patient testing profiles.
Current innovations in the area of gestational diabetes testing will ultimately secure the health, both during and post-pregnancy, of mother and baby.
Randox Laboratories are a global manufacturer of automated adiponectin and fructosamine biochemistry assays. For further information, download our brochure or contact reagents@randox.com
