Glycated haemoglobin (HbA 1c ) is widely used to determine levels of chronic glycaemia, to judge the adequacy of diabetes treatment and to adjust therapy. HbA 1c results are expressed as the percentage of HbA that is glycated. Day-to-day management is guided by self-monitoring of capillary glucose concentrations in mmol/l. The ADAG study determined the relationship between HbA 1c and average glucose concentration (AG) and concluded that for most patients with diabetes, HbA 1c can - with reasonable precision - be expressed as an estimated AG in the same units as self-monitoring.