Relationship between glycated Haemoglobin and glucose levels in adult healthy and diabeticNigerians in Benin Metropolis

Glycated haemoglobin, which is the non-enzymatic addition of a glucose molecule to one or both of the N-terminal valine of β chain of haemoglobin, is expressed as the percentage of adult haemoglobin that is glycated. Objective: To determine the relationship between fasting plasma glucose and glycated haemoglobin in a healthy and diabetic population in Benin City, Edo State and its relevance for use as a tool for monitoring control of diabetes. Patients And Methods: A total of 200 subjects participated in this study. One hundred of them were selected from a healthy adult population by simple random sampling and served as controls, while 100 were selected from diabetic patients attending outpatient clinic and on treatment. They were included in the study after meeting the inclusion criteria. Fasting plasma glucose and glycated haemoglobin were estimated in these subjects by the glucose oxidase method and cation- exchange chromatography method respectively. Results: Mean fasting plasma glucose was significantly increased in the diabetic population (149.8±72mg/dl), compared with the healthy population (81.mg/dl± 20mg/dl) (p = .001). Mean glycated haemoglobin was also significantly increased in the diabetic population (6.1± 2.8%), compared with the healthy population (4.9± 1.5%) (P = .000). Gender was observed to have a significant effect on glycated haemoglobin in both the healthy and the diabetic population (4.5 ± 1.1) (4.8 ± 1.1) p =.000 and (6.5±0.5) (5.6±0.4) p=.002, males and females respectively. There was significant correlation between fasting plasma glucose and glycated haemoglobin in both healthy and diabetic population (r = 0.369) (p =.000) (r = 0.315) (p = .001) Conclusion: We concluded that glycated haemoglobin correlated with fasting plasma glucose in the population studied, it may be used as a fairly accurate tool in assessing glycaemic control and monitoring treatment in diabetes mellitus. Keywords: Glycated haemoglobin, Fasting Plasma Glucos