HgbA1c: Readily Available Test Improves Heart Risk Calculation

I started the morning doing an OJ imitation - running thru McCarran, what were you thinking? And now I'm in Atlanta for a meeting. But on the fly, I stumbled upon a study just published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine that demonstrated an improvement in our ability to calculate heart risk with a simple & readily available blood test: Hemoglobin A1c. The authors analyzed data from the Nurses Health Study and the Physicians Health Study over several years. The idea is that HgbA1c is able to assess how poorly one's diabetes is controlled rather than just a blanket statement, as we currently do, to equate any diagnosis of diabetes with heart disease. After all, if you've made the effort to achieve an exceptionally well-controlled HgbA1c, your risk should be lower than the diabetic who doesn't pay attention to his/her nutrition & exercise. So the next time you need blood drawn, see if you can add HgbA1c to your orders.