Fructosamine

Overview:

Fructosamine forms when glucose attaches to proteins in the blood, mainly albumin. Because those proteins turn over in about two to three weeks, the level reflects average blood sugar across that shorter window, compared with the two to three months covered by HbA1c. That shorter window is useful in two situations: when a recent change in treatment needs assessing sooner than HbA1c would show it, and when HbA1c is unreliable, which happens with conditions affecting red blood cell lifespan such as some anemias and hemoglobin variants. Low albumin affects the result and is taken into account.

Categories:

Metabolic

Biomarkers:

1 biomarker