Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is related to hypercoagulability.

The predisposition for thrombosis disorders is caused by increased accumulation of platelets, by high concentrations of prothrombotic factors and by the reduced concentration and activity of the inhibitor factors. Abnormalities of coagulation inhibitors have been reported in many studies on diabetes over the last years, but unfortunately, the results have often appeared contradictory.

Aim: The aim of our research was to investigate the modification of hemostasis and evaluate the three inhibitors of coagulation in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Methods: We studied 50 patients with DM Type 2 (20 men-30 women, mean age 57.5 years – median duration of diabetes diagnosis 5 years) with mean value of glucose (GLU): 156.88±59.73 and mean value of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c): 8.07±2.78. In these patients, we evaluated the plasma levels of protein C (PC), free protein S (FPS) and antithrombin III (AT III). The plasma levels of PC were determined by chromatometric-amidolytic assay while FPS were measured with immuno-enzymatic-method and antithrobin III (AT III) with chromogenic assay. All these markers were also evaluated in a control group of 30 healthy subjects (H.S); (15 men-15 women-matched age).

Results: There were not statistically significant difference in PC levels among the patients and the control group. However it is remarkable that plasma levels of PS and AT III were noticeably lower than the concentrations of the healthy individuals (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that in poorly controlled diabetic patients there is modification in plasma levels and in functional activities of coagulation inhibitors.

The low levels of protein S and antithrombin III notify the hypercoagulant state and the high risk of atherothrombotic disorders that exist in diabetic patients.