Endocrine Abstracts

Cardiac complications account for three quarter of deaths among diabetic patients. Many studies have shown that high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) correlated with the inflammatory process of atherosclerosis in the coronary artery. This study is designed to determine the levels of plasma hs-CRP in Type II diabetic patients with microalbuminuria and its association with other biochemical markers used for diabetic monitoring. All biochemical parameters were analyzed using HITACHI 919 Analyzer. Microalbuminuria levels were assessed using Micral Test in 120 diabetics and 100 normal subjects (control). hs-CRP is significantly higher among diabetics (P<0.05) as compared to the control group. The concentrations of hs-CRP increases significantly with increasing levels of microalbuminuria which are classified into 0 mg/dL, 20 mg/dL and more than 50 mg/dL (P<0.01). Among diabetics, hs-CRP is significantly higher in those with miroalbuminuria compared to those without microalbuminuria (P<0.001). In contrast, hs-CRP is not significantly correlated with fasting blood glucose, LDL-chol, total cholesterol and triglyceride (P>0.05). This case-control study confirms the findings of higher concentration of hs-CRP among diabetic patients and may suggest the ongoing inflammation associated with atherosclerosis. This study suggests that by measuring the concentration of plasma hs-CRP in addition to other biochemical parameters as recommended by the Malaysian Clinical Practice Guideline, a proper planning to monitor complications of coronary artherosclerosis among diabetic patients with or without microalbuminuria can be done.