In diabetes mellitus, thickening of basement membrane in capillaries and small vessels is a well-known finding and important in the progression of diabetic microangiopathy. We evaluated whether the plasma levels of type IV collagen and fibronectin, which are important factors of basement membrane, are related with the presence of diabetic microangiopathy. Plasma type IV collagen and fibronectin levels were measured in 40 healthy controls (Mean +/- SD, age; 50.3 +/- 5.5 yr) and 94 diabetic patients (age; 52.4 +/- 13.5 yr) with and without microvascular complications. The mean plasma levels of type IV collagen (5.3 +/- 2.9 ng/ml) and fibronectin (474.4 +/- 119.4 ug/ml) in diabetic patients were significantly higher (p < 0.01) than in healthy controls (3.7 +/- 1.3 ng/ml and 319 +/- 50.9 ug/ml). The mean plasma level of type IV collagen in diabetic patients with complications (6.6 +/- 3.7 ng/ml) was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than in those without complications (4.3 +/- 1.7 ng/ml) and became higher in more complicated patients. Furthermore, the severity of retinopathy and several indicators of nephropathy such as serum BUN, creatinine and proteinuria were closely associated with plasma type IV collagen level and a significant correlation was found between plasma type IV collagen and creatinine clearance (r = -0.31, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in plasma fibronectin concentrations, however, between the diabetic patients with complications and those without complications.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Adult ; Aged ; Biological Markers/blood ; Blood Proteins/urine ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; Collagen/*blood ; Creatinine/blood ; Diabetic Angiopathies/*blood/diagnosis ; Diabetic Nephropathies/blood/diagnosis ; Diabetic Retinopathy/blood/diagnosis ; Female ; Fibronectins/*blood ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age

BACKGROUND: With respect to the risk of developing diabetic vascular complications, the central purpose of most screening and detection program, is to identify people with diabetes at early stage so they might have advantages of early treatment to prevent complication of the disease. Oral glucose tolerence test(OGTT) is widely used for diagnosis of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerence, bit the performance of a complete OGTT is not only time consuming and expensive but physically demanding on the individual being tested. Determination of HbA1 and more recently of glycosylated total serum proteins(fructosamine) has been proposed as an alternative method of screening and diagnosis. The aim of our cross-sectional study is to compare the values of fructosamine and HbA1, for the ourpose of diabetes diagnosis with the OGTT as reference method. METHODS: In the study, from January 1996 to August 1996, we included 55 consecutive subjects in Kyeungssang Hospital. Blood samples for HbA1 and fructosamone determination were drawn at the same time as a fasting plasma glucose sample, and then all subjects underwent a standard 2-hour OGTT according to the World Health Organization recom-mandations, The subjects were classified according to the American Diabetes Association classification. RESULTS: In our study, we observed fasting plasma glucose of 145.32+/-75.00mg/deciliter, two-hour plasma glucose of 245.83+/-155.22mg/deciliter, HbA1 of 7.06+/-2.77%, and fructosamine of 308.77+/-128.23 micromol/liter. The correlation coefficient between FPG and HbA1 was 0.9098(p<.05), between FPG and fructosamine 0.7953(p Blood Glucose ; Classification ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diabetic Angiopathies ; Diagnosis* ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Fasting ; Fructosamine* ; Glucose ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated* ; Mass Screening ; ROC Curve ; World Health Organization