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Fructosamine in serum
Last reviewed: 05.07.2025
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Reference values (norm) for fructosamine concentration in blood serum are 200-280 μmol/l.
Fructosamine is a product of glycosylation of blood plasma proteins. Glucose enters into non-enzymatic interaction with proteins, forming Schiff bases. Non-enzymatic glycosylation of proteins is a two-stage process of condensation of glucose and other carbohydrate groups with free amino groups of proteins. In the first stage, as a result of the interaction of glucose with amino groups, aldimine is formed, in the second stage of the reaction, the labile aldimine is converted into stable ketoamine. This stage is irreversible.
The degree of glycosylation of plasma proteins depends on the concentration of glucose in the blood and the duration of the half-life of proteins. The amount of fructosamine in the blood is a good indicator for retrospective monitoring of blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes mellitus, allowing the effectiveness of treatment to be assessed without daily monitoring of glycemia levels, which burdens the patient.
Unlike HbA 1c, fructosamine reflects the average concentration of glucose in the blood 2-3 weeks before measurement. This is due to the half-life of glycosylated proteins: for albumin it is 20 days, while for hemoglobin it depends on the half-life of red blood cells (60 days). Determination of fructosamine has an advantage over determination of HbA 1c, since it does not require additional testing - determination of hemoglobin concentration in the patient.
When assessing the results of a study of fructosamine as a criterion for compensation of diabetes mellitus, it is considered that when its content in the blood is from 280 to 320 μmol/l, compensation is satisfactory, and above 320 μmol/l, it is unsatisfactory.
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