Objective: To measure the levels of inflammatory markers (serum ferritin and high sensitivity C-reactive protein) and dyslipidemia in diabetics and to find a correlation between these inflammatory markers and dyslipidemia.
Study design: Comparative study.
Place and duration of study: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, from March 2007 to February 2008.
Methodology: The study included 30 known type-2 diabetic patients randomly inducted from diabetic clinics of Rawalpindi. Healthy volunteers (n=30) having blood glucose less than 6 mmol/L were inducted as the comparison group. Fasting blood samples of diabetics and controls were analyzed for glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid profile, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and serum ferritin.
Results: The diabetic subjects had significantly higher levels of glucose, HbA1c, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, hs-CRP and ferritin as compared to normal subjects (p<0.001), while the level of HDL cholesterol was significantly lower in diabetics (p<0.001). Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was found between the inflammatory markers, hs-CRP and ferritin, and the parameters of dyslipidemia i.e. total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides (p<0.001 r=0.72) except for HDL cholesterol, which had an insignificant negative correlation with the inflammatory markers (p>0.05 r=-0.10).
Conclusion: Low-grade inflammation exists in Diabetes mellitus and it is positively related with dyslipidemia (except for HDL cholesterol) in diabetics.