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©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jan 15, 2019; 10(1): 1-15
Published online Jan 15, 2019. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v10.i1.1
Published online Jan 15, 2019. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v10.i1.1
Update on biomarkers of glycemic control
Maja Krhač, Marijana Vučić Lovrenčić, Division of Laboratory Medicine, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Merkur University Hospital, Zagreb 10000, Croatia
Author contributions: The authors equally contributed to this paper in the conception, literature review and analysis, drafting and editing, and final approval of the submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marijana Vučić Lovrenčić, PhD, Senior Scientist, Division of Laboratory Medicine, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Merkur University Hospital, Zajčeva 19, Zagreb 10000, Croatia. vucic@idb.hr
Telephone: +385-1-2353861 Fax: +385-1-2353847
Received: August 29, 2018
Peer-review started: August 29, 2018
First decision: October 16, 2018
Revised: November 14, 2018
Accepted: December 5, 2018
Article in press: December 5, 2018
Published online: January 15, 2019
Peer-review started: August 29, 2018
First decision: October 16, 2018
Revised: November 14, 2018
Accepted: December 5, 2018
Article in press: December 5, 2018
Published online: January 15, 2019
Core Tip
Core tip: Monitoring of glycemic control is currently based on the self-monitoring of blood glucose and laboratory testing for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), which is a surrogate marker of the average glycemia level over the past 2-3 mo. The severity of hyperglycemia and glycemic variability contribute to the pathogenesis of complications, but the HbA1c measurement reflects only a piece of these important variables. In this review, we provide a critical update on the use of HbA1c and alternative biomarkers of glycemic control, with particular emphasis on the need for a personalized approach in utilizing and interpreting different tests in a clinically meaningful manner.