Wednesday, June 20, 2012

How Glucose is counted in Canada and USA

Most of the blogs I linked to in the previous post are American and for some reason the USA insists on measuring glucose differently from the rest of the world.

In Canada and many other places in the world, blood glucose is measured in units called millioles of glucose per litre of blood - mmol/L

In the USA, blood glucose is measured in units called milligrams per decilitre - mg/dL

1mmol/L = 18 mg/dL

So a blood glucose of 10 mmol/L  = a blood glucose of 180 mg/dL

In Canada, a normal reading for adults is between 4 and 7 mmol/L

My understanding is that a normal reading in the USA is between 80 and 120 mg/dL.



Source - When a Child Has Diabetes
By Daneman, Frank, Perlman
Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto, Canada
Third Edition, Key Porter Books, Toronto 2010


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