Effects of azotemia on results of the boronate-agarose affinity and ion-exchange methods for glycated hemoglobin.

We evaluated the effect of azotemia on results for glycated hemoglobin as measured by a boronate-agarose affinity method and an ion-exchange chromatographic procedure with saline preincubation and found a good correlation. However, values for glycated hemoglobin in samples from nondiabetic patients with various degrees of azotemia were consistently higher with the ion-exchange column procedure (mean, 8.5%) than with the boronate affinity method (mean, 6.2%). The latter method may thus be preferred for monitoring glycated hemoglobin in diabetic patients with impaired renal function.