investigations
Last reviewed 01/2018
Simple investigations are often sufficient to confirm the clinical diagnosis of diabetes mellitus:
- urinalysis for glucose and ketones: it should be remembered some reagent strips give a false negative result for glucose in the presence of significant ketonuria
- plasma glucose measurement: reagent strip and laboratory measurement of random and/or fasting plasma glucose
Other investigations include:
- plasma bicarbonate and pH measurements
- urea, creatinine and electrolyte measurements
- glycosylated haemoglobin
- white cell count +/- cultures as a screen for precipitating infection
Investigations performed for research purposes may include:
- anti-insulin and anti-islet cell antibodies
- C-peptide levels following carbohydrate challenge
It is important to remember to minimise venesection in the newly diagnosed diabetic; the last thing one wishes to create is a phobia of needles.