A micromethod for the evaluation of hemoglobin A1c: technique and preliminary results.

A microtechnique of column chromatography on a Biorex 70 resin monitored by permanent recording of the effluent o.d., permits to obtain the percent of Hb A1C in an hemolyzate within 1.5 hr (in the place of 6 hrs in the usual techniques). This evaluation was carried out in 18 normal subjects and 32 patients suffering from diabetes mellitus and was repeated several times in 10 patients. The average level in the normal subjects was 5.01% (3.2 to 6.1%), in the equilibrated patients with a glycemia under 2 g/l: 6.44% (5.74 to 7.14%) and in the poorly equilibrated patients: 8.9% (5.5 to 15.3%). Hemoglobin A1C appears as a valuable index of sugar metabolic equilibrium.