The risk of arterial disease and microvascular complications in people with diabetes are known to be related to the extent of hyperglycaemia with time. While the lifestyle, oral agent, and injectable therapies discussed in this guideline can improve blood glucose control, their efficacy is limited, as the underlying pathogenesis of diabetes worsens with time. As symptoms are not a reliable guide to blood glucose control in people on therapy, it is important to have an accurate means of measuring blood glucose control over time, to enable decision-making. This section addresses the clinical questions as to the tests of blood glucose control best predictive of future vascular damage.
