March 23, 2001
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Ransom, Kansas, USA:
I took my five year old daughter to the doctor yesterday because she had what looked to me like a yeast infection (red rash with some discharge). The doctor said that it could be a sign of high blood sugar and gave a pinprick test at that time which showed a level of 122 mg/dl [6.7 mmol/L]. He then scheduled a fasting blood test for the next morning which came back at 100 mg/dl [5.5 mmol/L]. He still wants to do an oral glucose tolerance test to be certain, but after doing some research, it appears to me that the values are normal. Would you suggest we go through this test?
Answer:
Your daughter’s doctor was absolutely right to ask for both a random and a fasting blood sugar. Both values were, as you say, normal, so that for my own part I don’t think that a glucose tolerance test is really necessary unless you have other reasons, such as a positive family history or typical symptoms, to be concerned. Even if you did, I think a screening test for islet cell antibodies would be a much better discriminant.
DOB
