Sample Method
It is important to stress that the diagnosis criteria stated above by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is for venous samples only i.e. a blood sample taken from a vein in the arm. An increasingly popular method for measuring blood glucose is from a capillary or finger-prick sample. This is less invasive, more convenient for the patient and requires minimal training to conduct. Whilst fasting blood glucose have been shown to be similar in both capillary and venous samples, postprandial blood glucose levels (those measured after a meal) can vary. Therefore the diagnosis criteria issued by the WHO should only be used for venous blood samples. Given the increasing popularity of capillary testing the WHO has recommended that a conversion factor between the two sample types be calculated. To date no conversion factor has been issued by the WHO despite some medical professionals adopting their own.
Read more about this topic: Glucose Tolerance Test
Famous quotes containing the words sample and/or method:
“The present war having so long cut off all communication with Great-Britain, we are not able to make a fair estimate of the state of science in that country. The spirit in which she wages war is the only sample before our eyes, and that does not seem the legitimate offspring either of science or of civilization.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Protestantism has the method of Jesus with His secret too much left out of mind; Catholicism has His secret with His method too much left out of mind; neither has His unerring balance, His intuition, His sweet reasonableness. But both have hold of a great truth, and get from it a great power.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)