Diagnostic use of fructosamine assay in the control of type II diabetes mellitus.

In an attempt to evaluate the usefulness of fructosamine assay in monitoring type II diabetes, 142 diabetic patients were investigated. Fructosamine values were found to be higher in patients on insulin treatment than on oral hypoglycemic agents. In order to evaluate the metabolic control by using the correlated variations of F, Gm and HbA1c, the patients were subdivided into many control classes: mean values of fructosamine were higher in poorly controlled patients. Fructosamine however correlated better with glycemia in patients with recent variations in metabolic state than HbA1c. It was concluded that fructosamine is a good index for short-term metabolic control, and if used in an integrated fashion with glycemia and HbA1c, can provide further information on the metabolic state of diabetes.