Misdiagnosis??
Is diabetes or pre-diabetes misdiagnosis common? Here’s a recap about what happened to my boyfriend in the past few weeks: My boyfriend is 40 years old, exercises every day, and his weight is normal (5’11’ 190 lbs). He went to his family doctor for routine physical including blood tests since he hadn’t had this done in over 10 years. No one informed him to fast and prior to his morning appointment, he ate late the night before which included candy and had pop-tarts and coffee for breakfast. They drew blood and no one asked him when he last ate. The next week, the doctor asked him to come back to take more blood to re-do one of the tests but didn’t say which one. Again, he wasn’t told to fast and he ate breakfast and had a Frozen Caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks – no sugar in those!
My boyfriend called for the results of the 2nd blood test and the nurse informed him he was Type II diabetic – just like that! They told him his blood glucose level was 121 and his A1C was 5.7. I was surprised they diagnosed him over the phone just like that...no explanation or anything. Having little knowledge of diabetes I searched the Web for hours and realized that the test they performed was actually the random plasma glucose test since he didn’t fast, right? Most sources state a random glucose test has a level of 200 or higher for diagnosing diabetes, and his level was 121.
The nurse told him to come in ASAP to discuss his condition. I went with him to his appointment 5 days later. The doctor sat down with us and told him he wasn’t diabetic, but pre-diabetic and that he will become diabetic in 10-15 years. Then the doctor stated that since it ran in his family, he will get it. I questioned this, and my boyfriend reminded me that his grandmother was diabetic. However, she wasn’t diagnosed until her 80’s, and she lived until she was 90! I’m not too sure but I don’t think that’s as important as, for example, a parent or sibling being diabetic and diagnosed at a much earlier age than 80??? It seemed like the Dr. was basing this diagnosis on “family history” and a non-fasting glucose level of 121 as well as an A1C of 5.7. When I questioned the Dr. regarding how fasting can affect the results and informed him that my boyfriend didn’t fast for either test he said it didn’t matter, and that “a glucose level of 121 is high regardless of when you last ate.” Then he said an A1C of 5.7 was elevated and a normal number was 4.2. I realize that fasting does not affect the A1C.
We insisted on another blood test since many sources state that a fasting glucose test is recommended for diagnosis, and the doctor said it wouldn’t matter and that he didn’t need one based on the A1C being 5.7. Again, is it possible that he's pre-diabetic based on a
random glucose level of 121?? We still insisted, so he finally agreed and said he’d also do an insulin test because that is a better test for diagnosis and he took blood right then (my boyfriend didn’t have a crumb of food for over 12 hours).
He just got the results back from the 3rd test today and his results are:
Fasting plasma glucose – 80!
Fasting insulin – 4
C-peptide – 1.3
Thankfully the FPG number is now in the normal range (he fasted!), so when the Dr. stated that eating “doesn’t matter” when testing glucose was he totally off base? The number went from 121 to 80. What is the significance of his non-fasting glucose level being 121? I couldn’t find any information about that. Also, does anyone know what in insulin level of 4 means? The range on the print out said <17. What is the C-peptide test? And could it be possible that my boyfriend is pre-diabetic based on his A1C since eating doesn’t affect the number?
Thank you for any input!
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