Family medicine

Percent total body weight loss expresses change in weight as a fraction of starting weight. It is the standard way to monitor and report response to obesity treatment, including GLP-1 and dual incretin therapies. A loss of 5% or more is generally considered clinically meaningful, with greater benefit at 10% and 15% or more. It is a monitoring metric, not a diagnosis.

BMI is weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. It is a quick population screen for weight status, not a measure of body fat or health on its own. For people of South Asian and other Asian ancestry, risk rises at lower BMIs, so the lower WHO Asia-Pacific cut points are shown alongside the standard bands.

Four clinical criteria (tonsillar exudate, tender anterior cervical nodes, fever by history, absence of cough), each worth 1 point, plus the McIsaac age adjustment, estimate the likelihood of group A streptococcal pharyngitis and frame the decision to test or treat.

Estimated average glucose (eAG) converts an HbA1c percentage into the average glucose it corresponds to, expressed in the same units patients see on a meter (mg/dL or mmol/L). It comes from the ADAG study regression. eAG is a population-level estimate of average glucose over the preceding 2 to 3 months, not a substitute for actual glucose monitoring, and it should not be confused with the CGM-derived glucose management indicator (GMI).

HOMA-IR is a simple fasting surrogate for insulin resistance derived by Matthews and colleagues in 1985. A healthy reference individual scores about 1; higher values suggest more insulin resistance. There is no single universal threshold: cutoffs vary with the insulin assay, population, age, and BMI, so the number is best read against your own laboratory's reference range and trended over time.