Study of the effect of altitude on the measurement of glycated haemoglobin using point-of-care instruments

Abstract

We measured the glycated haemoglobin (HbA 1c) levels of a total of 24 non-diabetic volunteers and diabetic patients using a point-of-care (POC) analyser in three Cameroonian cities at different altitudes. Although 12 to 25% of duplicates had more than 0.5% (8 mmol/mol) difference across the sites, HbA 1c values correlated significantly (r = 0.89-0.96). Further calibration studies against gold-standard measures are warranted.