Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To determine the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) and nephropathy in type 1 diabetic patients.

Methods: A total of 68 patients (24 women and 44 men) with type 1 diabetes aged 46.58±12.23 years were studied. All subjects had BMI<35 kg/m². The levels of CRP, fasting blood glucose (FBG), triglycerides (TG), HbA1c and renal function tests were assessed. Patients were divided into 2 groups: 1 group – patients with nephropathy (patients were classified as normoalbuminuric (albumin excretion rate (AER) <30 mg/24 h, n=14), microalbuminuric (AER 30–300 mg/24 h, n=38) and proteinuric (AER>300 mg/24 h, n=16) and 25 healthy subjects as a control.

Results: The duration of diabetes was 14.60±7.81 years. There was significant difference between group 1 and group 2 regarding the level of CRP (4.22±1.74 vs. 1.54±0.31, P<0.001). We found a positive significant correlation between CRP and FBG (r=0.65, P<0.05), CRP and HbA1c (r=0.54, P<0.05) and CRP and TG (r=0.30, P<0.005) in group 1.

The multivariate linear regression analysis showed significant association CRP with AER (B=0.53, β=0.681, P=0.02).

Conclusions: The level of CRP is sensitive markers for diabetic nephropathy in type 1 diabetic patients. The further evaluation will be needed to clarify this association.