What is the difference between HbA1c and a glucose test?
Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS
Glucose is a snapshot, the sugar in your blood this minute, swayed by the last meal, stress and sleep. HbA1c is the film: sugar has been sticking to red blood cells for their three month lifespan, and the test reads that accumulated coating.
That is why A1c diagnoses and monitors so well, and why it cannot catch day-to-day swings or dangerous lows, where finger-prick or sensor glucose still rules.
Anemia and some blood conditions distort A1c slightly. Together the two tests tell the whole story; alone, each has blind spots.
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