Diabetes testing
Blood take service 5.00€
Tests
20.00€
When assessing diabetes, sometimes glucose tests alone are not enough. Tests for insulin and antibodies related to autoimmune diabetes - anti-GAD, anti-IA2, insulin autoantibodies (IAA), and islet cell antibodies (ICA) - help answer other diagnostic questions.
When are autoantibodies tested?
These antibodies can be used when it's necessary to determine if diabetes is associated with autoimmune damage to the pancreatic beta cells. This is especially relevant in distinguishing type 1 diabetes or some slowly developing forms of autoimmune diabetes in adults from type 2 diabetes. A diagnosis is not made based on the result of a single antibody.
The insulin test answers another question - it shows the insulin concentration in the blood at a given time. Its result should be evaluated in conjunction with glucose levels, testing conditions, and overall health status.
If the goal is routine diabetes or prediabetes screening, it usually starts with glucose and/or HbA1c. The autoantibody panel is not a general prophylactic diabetes test for every person.