Postload Glycated Albumin as an Alternate Measure for Diabetes Screening in a Chinese Population

Abstract

In previous epidemiological screening in China, glycated albumin (GA) was mostly detected during the fasting state. This strict restriction causes some problems with diabetes screening. It is unclear if GA could help improve the efficiency of screening for diabetes for subjects who are not in the fasting state. The present study analyzed the differences between fasting and postload (30, 60, 120, and 180 min) GA levels. A total of 691 participants were enrolled in the present study. The Bland-Altman difference plots revealed that 95.4, 94.8, 93.6, and 93.9% of data points were within the limits of agreement for each time point. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed that the areas under the curve (AUC) for baseline GA and postload GA for every time point were 0.822 (95% CI 0.791–0.849), 0.821 (95% CI 0.790–0.848), 0.833 (95% CI 0.803–0.860), 0.840 (95% CI 0.811–0.867), and 0.840 (95% CI 0.810–0.867), with sensitivities of 67.5, 68.1, 69.3, 71.6, and 69.3%, respectively. There was no difference between the baseline and postload GA levels in either AUC or sensitivity (all p>0.05). In conclusion, postload serum GA levels were in good agreement with those at baseline, and thus, it may be reasonable to employ nonfasting measurements of GA levels for diabetes screening.