Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association
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HbA1c values in capillary blood (50 microliters) were compared with venous samples, assayed by HPLC (normal less than 6.6%) in 64 Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic patients. One group (n = 43) collected capillary blood in the Outpatient Department simultaneously with a venous sample. The capillary sample collection was not supervised. ⋯ The standard deviation for capillary duplicates was 0.14%, at a mean of 8.7%. During laboratory storage capillary HbA1c was initially slightly higher than corresponding venous values with some decrease (7.7% to 7.2%) over 7 days. HbA1c values in home-collected samples are accurate and reproducible when compared with venous samples assayed by HPLC, and the method was acceptable to patients.