Okuzeka
Medicine vocabulary · Diagnosis and Tests

Blood glucose

Meaning in medicine, with examples

/ˌblʌd ˈɡluːkoʊs/nounCore term

In medicine, blood glucose means: The amount of sugar (glucose) in the blood at a given moment; it is checked to diagnose and monitor diabetes.

In Turkish: kan şekeri, kan glukozu

How it is used

Measured in a lab or with a finger-prick meter at the bedside (capillary blood glucose, CBG). Doctors speak of fasting and random blood glucose; patients say 'blood sugar'. Units differ: mmol/L in the UK and mg/dL in the US and Turkey.

Example sentences

  1. Check her blood glucose before you do anything else; she's diabetic and drowsy.

  2. Your fasting blood glucose is higher than normal, so we'll repeat the test.

Common collocations

  • fasting blood glucose
  • random blood glucose
  • check blood glucose
  • blood glucose level
  • capillary blood glucose
  • diabetesA long-term disease in which the body cannot control blood sugar properly, because it makes too little insulin or cannot use it well.
  • insulinA hormone made by the pancreas that lowers blood glucose; it is also given as a medicine, usually by injection, to people with diabetes.
  • blood testA laboratory check of a blood sample, taken from a vein or a fingertip, to measure things like blood cells, sugar, salts or markers of infection.
  • normal rangeThe span of test values found in most healthy people, against which a patient's result is compared.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Diagnosis and Tests

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.