Screening for Type 2 Diabetes > Effectiveness/Harms of Screening Tests Author: Lorraine Lipscombe, MD, FRCPC; Denice S. Feig, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Editorial changes - 2009-05-01
Author information and module status
Key Points
Population at Risk
Effectiveness/Harms of Screening Tests
Effectiveness/Harms of Early Treatment
Direct Evidence that Screening Reduces Adverse Outcomes
Timeline
Cost-Effectiveness
Patient Education
Referral/Consultation
Guidelines
Tables
References
Glossary
What's New
Patient Information
Additional Resources
Tools
Recommendation
Know that lowering the threshold FBG value increases the sensitivity but decreases the specificity for a diagnosis of diabetes; therefore, although the optimal threshold FBG value to exclude diabetes may be <100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L), a 2-hour PG would be required to confirm diabetes in patients with an FBG 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L).B

Evidence:

  • The ADA published Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes in 2007 (61).
  • In a study of 935 Canadian subjects of European, South Asian, and Chinese origin, an FBG of >=103 mg/dL (5.7 mmol/L) had a sensitivity of 83.3% (73.9 to 92.8) and a specificity of 88.0% (85.9 to 90.2) to diagnose diabetes (62).

Comments:

  • None.

FAQs
Denice S. Feig, MD, MSc, FRCPC has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations. Lorraine Lipscombe, MD, FRCPC has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations. Sonal Singh, MD, editorial consultant, has no financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or health-care related organizations.
Steven E. Weinberger, MD, FACP, Acting Editor, PIER, has stock holdings in Glaxosmithkline and Abbott.

The information included herein should never be used as a substitute for clinical judgment and does not represent an official position of ACP. Because all PIER modules are updated regularly, printed web pages or PDFs may rapidly become obsolete. Therefore, PIER users should compare the date of the last update on the website with any printout to ensure that the information being referred to is the most current available.
PIER is copyrighted (c) 2009 by the American College of Physicians,
190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106-1572, USA.