Detection of diabetes in people with stroke using HbA1c.

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Detection of diabetes in people with stroke using HbA1c.

• IRAS ID

  183320

• Contact name

  Jesse Dawson

• Contact email

  Jesse.Dawson@glasgow.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  NHS GG&C Sponsor

• Duration of Study in the UK

  2 years, 0 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  A diagnosis of diabetes at least doubles the risk of stroke. Many patients admitted with stroke are found to have diabetes - this is estimated to be between 15% and 44%. There are different ways of diagnosing diabetes including a fasting blood sample and an oral glucose tolerance test. After stroke these may be inaccurate as the blood sugar can be affected by the stroke itself, nutritional status and because some people have swallowing problems after stroke. Therefore to diagnose diabetes after stroke follow up tests are usually needed after leaving hospital.
  Recently, the American Diabetes Association guidelines suggested that hemoglobin HbA1c level should to be used as a diagnose for diabetes (≥6.5%) and pre-diabetes (5.7–6.4%). It is also stated that these tests may not be optimal in patients who are acutely unwell so we need to study if it can be used after stroke. If we can better identify diabetes after stroke using HbA1c levels we will be better able to manage this key cardiovascular risk factor.
  This research aims to assess of HbA1c levels for the diagnosis of diabetes early after stroke. We will check an HbA1c level early after stroke and then repeat it 3 months where we will also perform an oral glucose tolerance test. Participants will still receive their normal tests for diabetes. We will recruit 200 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of stroke. This will allow us to see whether HbA1c detects more cases of diabetes and to be sure that a single HbA1c level measured in hospital does not miss cases that develop soon after discharge.

• REC name

  East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/EM/0423

• Date of REC Opinion

  22 Oct 2015

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion