Glucose Tolerance Assay

Running head: GLUCOSE TOLERANCE ASSAY
GLUCOSE TOLERANCE ASSAY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1GLUCOSE TOLERANCE ASSAY
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Materials:.........................................................................................................................................3
Methods:..........................................................................................................................................4
Preparation of standard curve from standard glucose solution using spectrometer....................4
Preparation and assessment of patients’ samples........................................................................4
Calculation of standard deviation................................................................................................4
Results:............................................................................................................................................5
Discussion and Conclusion:.............................................................................................................8
References:....................................................................................................................................10

2GLUCOSE TOLERANCE ASSAY
Introduction:
FGT or Fasting Glucose Test is a test which is commonly used to determine the blood glucose
levels in an individual and therefore, can be employed to diagnose the functioning insulin level
of any individuals (Ortiz et al. 2018). As a result, this Fasting Glucose Test can be used to
diagnose the pre- diabetic or diabetic condition in an individual. Glucagon is a type of hormone
which produced in the pancreas and gets triggered by sustained fasting. This hormone, glucagon,
is the reason behind the release of glucose in the blood stream by liver (Bonner et al. 2015).
Body reacts to the glucose level in the blood stream by producing the hormone Insulin which in
turn mediates the glucose present in the blood stream to enter in the cell and supplying them with
the needed energy for their functioning. Thus, insulin helps maintain the blood glucose level in
the blood stream and preventing the condition known as hyperglycemia (Jakubowicz et al.
2015). Hyperglycemia is a condition in which body cannot produce enough insulin required to
handle blood sugar present in the blood and thus causing high blood sugar in blood and the
fasting blood sugar level remains high (Jakubowicz et al. 2015). This high blood sugar level or
hyperglycemia is a major concern for the affected individuals can lead to the condition known as
diabetes mellitus for both type 1 and type 2. Diabetes has become a major global health issues
and untreated condition leads to severe dysfunction of organ and can even leads to death. Hence,
accurate determining test is required to measure the blood glucose level to detect the presence of
diabetes (Varni et al. 2018). In case of definition and classification of diabetes, British diabetic
association has endorsed to adapt the criteria and guidelines provided World Health Organisation
(WHO). The primary change that was occurred due to this adaptation is the lower cut- off value
for the venous plasma glucose and the new value is 7.0 mmol/L (Diabetes UK 2019). There are
various symptoms available for diabetes such as unexplained and rapid weight loss, polydipsia,

3GLUCOSE TOLERANCE ASSAY
and polyuria which can be employed to diagnose diabetes. Diagnosis test for diabetes can be
performed in three way and these three test are fasting plasma glucose concentration, random
venous plasma glucose concentration and two hour plasma glucose concentration. From the
above discussion, it can be inferred that the determination of glucose level is essential in case of
diagnosis for the diabetes (Diabetes UK 2019). Therefore, in this investigation, an experimental
procedure will be conducted to calculate the glucose concentration from unknown samples and
interpretation of the readings glucose tolerance level.
Materials:
Following materials, instruments, and equipment were used during the experiment process:
o Test tubes and test tube racks
o Spectrophotometer
o Cuvettes (capacity 1 ml) and cuvettes holder
o Parafilm squares
o Stop watches
o Beaker and Virkon bowl for cuvettes
o 1 ml standard reagent for Quality Control
o P20, P100, and P1000
o 30 ml Randox made Glucose reagent
o 25 ml Glucose standard.
Plasma samples were collected from the patient twice during the oral glucose tolerance test; one
at the beginning of the experiment and one at the end of 120 minutes. Additionally, for the
patient 4, ten readings were collected at 120 minutes for the calculation of standard deviation.