Endocrine Abstracts

We assessed glycemic status using oral glucose tolerance, 72-h continuous blood glucose concentrations by CGMS, calculate HOMA and QUICKI indices.

Population: 15 adolescents with β thalassemia major.

Results: Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) In the 15 thalassemic adolescents (age=19.75±3.08 years) showed that four had impaired fasting blood glucose level (IFG)>5.6 mmol/l. One of them had diabetes (BG=16.2 mmol/l at 2-h, and two of them had impaired glucose tolerance IGT (>7.8<11.1 mmol/l). Maximum (postprandial) glucose levels recorded during CGM diagnosed IGT in six adolescents (>7.8<11.1 mmol/l) and diabetes (RBS>11.1 mmol/l) in two. HOMA and QUICKI revealed levels <2.6 (1.6±0.8) and >0.33 (0.36±0.03) respectively denoting non-insulin resistance state. There was a significant negative correlation between the β-cell function (B %) and the fasting and the 2-h blood glucose levels (r=−0.6, and −0.48, P<0.01)respectively. The average and maximum blood glucose levels during CGM were positively correlated with the FBS (r=0.69 and 0.6 respectively with P<0.01) and with the glucose level at 2 h after oral glucose intake (r=0.87and 0.86 respectively with P<0.01). The ferretin level was positively correlated with the fasting blood glucose (FBS), 2-h blood glucose levels in the OGTT, average, and the maximum blood glucose levels from the CGM (r=0.69, 0.43, 0.75, and 0.64 respectively, P<0.01) and negatively correlated with the β-cell function (r=−0.41, P<0.01).

Conclusion: CGM appears to be superior to standard OGTT for diagnosing glycemic abnormalities in TM. The glycemic abnormalities in our adolescents with TM is due to defective β-cell function with no evidence of insulin resistance state.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.

Authors have nothing to disclose