Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Both endothelial dysfunction and albuminuria have been shown to be related to cardiovascular risk. We aimed to investigate relations between endothelial dysfunction, albuminuria and frequency of the microvascular complication in type 2 diabetic patients.

Method: Forty type 2 diabetic patients (24 microalbuminuria and 16 macroalbuminuria) with a mean age of 57.2±10.8 years and 25 healthy control subjects with a mean age of 54.1±9.6 years were included in the study. Endothelial function was assessed by brachial artery flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) in all subjects using high-resolution ultrasonography. The patients were evaluated in terms of microvascular complications, clinical and demographic features. Fasting plasma glucose and A1c levels were measured. Urinary albumin was assessed in 24-h urine sample.

Results: The mean duration of the diabetes was 89.9±90.9 months and the mean A1c level was 10.12±1.2% in the diabetic group. All patient had either microalbuminuria (60%) or macroalbuminuria (40%). Retinopathy was observed in 27.5% and neuropathy in 57.5% of patients. Lower FMD and nitroglycerine-mediated dilatation were observed in diabetic patient compared to those of controls (4.6±2.0 vs 10.5±3.9%, P<0.0001; 15.3±5.8 vs 18.3±4.6%, P=0.016 respectively). The correlation analysis of the diabetic patients revealed that FMD was negatively correlated with the frequency of the complications(r=−0.33, P=0.037). Patients with macroalbuminuria had lower FMD compared to the patients with microalbuminuria (2.9±0.7 vs 5.6±1.9%, P<0.0001). Similarly, patients with retinopathy had lower FMD compared to the patients without retinopathy (3.3±1.3 vs 5.0±2.0%, P=0.006). FMD was negatively correlated with the level of albuminuria (r=−0.43, P=0.006).

Conclusion: Endothelial dysfunction is seems to be linked to the level of albuminuria, and correlated with the frequency of the complications in type 2 diabetic patients