Increased levels of plasma homocysteine are associated with nephropathy, but not severe retinopathy in type 1 diabetes mellitus
Författare
Summary, in English
The reactive vascular-injuring amino acid homocysteine was measured in plasma samples from 79 well-characterized type 1 diabetic patients and 46 control subjects. Patients with proliferative retinopathy had higher homocysteine levels (15.0 +/- 6.3 mumols l-1; mean +/- SD, p less than 0.001; n = 42) than those with progressive retinopathy during a two-year period (10.4 +/- 1.6 mumols l-1; n = 12), no or minimal retinopathy (10.7 +/- 4.3 mumols l-1; n = 25), and the control subjects (11.0 +/- 3.4 mumols l-1). Within the group of patients with proliferative retinopathy increased homocysteine levels were confined to those patients that had serum creatinine levels greater than 115 mumols l-1 and/or an albumin:creatinine clearance ratio greater than or equal to 0.02 x 10(-3) (17.0 +/- 5.9 mumols l-1; n = 23), whereas those with no or only minimal nephropathy had levels (12.1 +/- 5.5 mumols l-1; n = 18) that were not different from the control group. We conclude that neither type 1 diabetes mellitus nor diabetic retinopathy per se is associated with increased plasma homocysteine levels. In contrast, homocysteine accumulates, probably owing to reduced glomerular filtration, in diabetic patients with advanced nephropathy. This suggests that homocysteine might contribute to the accelerated development of macroangiopathy seen especially in this subgroup of diabetic patients.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
1991
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
277-282
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Scandinavian Journal of Clinical & Laboratory Investigation
Volym
51
Issue
3
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Informa Healthcare
Ämne
- Endocrinology and Diabetes
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Pharmacology and Toxicology
Nyckelord
- diabetes mellitus
- Homocysteine
- renal insufficiency
- retinopath
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1502-7686