Shinya Morita, Soji Kasayama, Reiko Deguchi, Koichi Hirai, Kosuke Mukai, Yoshihiko Utsu, Satoru Sumitani, Bunzo Sato
Background: It has recently been shown that glycated albumin (GA) has some different aspects from HbA1c as an indicator of chronic glycemic control, besides it reflects shorter periods of glycemia. In this study, we investigated whether both indices of chronic glycemia are differently influenced by diabetic duration and diabetic vascular complications.
Methods: The present study included 63 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (40 men, 23 women) in whom HbA1c and GA were simultaneously measured every other month during a year. Annual mean levels of HbA1c, GA, and the GA/HbA1c ratio were determined, and the associations of these values with diabetes duration, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic nephropathy were analyzed.
Results: Annual mean levels of the GA/HbA1c ratio were significantly correlated with diabetes duration, whereas those of HbA1c and GA were not associated with it. Annual mean levels of GA and the GA/HbA1c ratio were significantly higher in the patients with diabetic retinopathy than in those without it, whereas those of HbA1c were not different between both groups. Annual mean levels of HbA1c, GA and the GA/HbA1c ratio were not different between the patients with diabetic nephropathy and those without it. By multivariate regression analysis, GA as well as diabetic duration were explanatory variables for diabetic retinopathy.
Conclusion: These results indicate that GA, rather than HbA1c, reflects diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.