Hemoglobin A1 in hemolysates from healthy and insulin-dependent diabetic children, as determined with a temperature-controlled minicolumn assay.

We report age-specific glycohemoglobin values for nondiabetic infants, children, and young adults. These values were determined with an ion-exchange "mini-column" in a specially designed and constructed water bath that maintains column temperature at 23 +/- 0.1 degrees C. Two in-house-prepared controls with glycohemoglobin content amounting to 6.36% and 11.87% of total hemoglobin, stored at -20 degrees C, were used to assess long-term analytical precision. Between-day precision (CV) was 1.4% and 1.65%, respectively. We found a significant correlation (r = 0.981, p less than 0.01) between the glycohemoglobin value and the physicians' independent assessment of clinical control in 129 insulin-dependent diabetics, ages 3-23 years. There were significant differences (p less than 0.05) between glycohemoglobin values between patients with well-controlled or poorly controlled diabetes and those with intermediate control. Reported studies of 20 patients over three to 12 weeks showed that changes in clinical control were paralleled by changes in glycohemoglobin values.