Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Homocysteine is an intermediate sulfur amino acid in the metabolic pathways of cysteine production from methionine, which is increasingly involved in various pathological processes (arterial thrombosis, depression, schizophrenia, dementia). We are interested in the course of our work to study the variation of homocysteine levels in diabetic subjects with venous thrombosis.

Materials and methods: This is an observational case-control study, comparing 47 healthy control subjects with 47 patients admitted to the internal medicine department for the management of deep vein thrombosis confirmed by radiological examination. These two groups were matched according to age, sex and body mass index. The homocysteine assay and fasting blood sugar were done by an enzymatic method. The assay of glycated hemoglobin was carried out by the reference method (high performance liquid chromatography)

Results: The mean age of patients and controls was 40.8 ± 10.5 years with ranges of 18 and 59 years. The two groups consisted of 27 men (57.5%) and 20 women (42.5%) with a sex ratio of 1.35. The diabetic subjects in our population were 14.8% in the patient group and 12.7% in the control group (without statically significant difference). Hyperhomocysteinemia was significantly correlated with the presence of diabetes with P = 0.006 with a mean level of 26.28 ± 10 μmol /l in diabetic subjects against a mean level of 12.3 ± 5.9 μmol /l in non-diabetic subjects.

Conclusion: Homocysteine is a sulfur amino acid involved in many cardiovascular pathological processes which should be systematically screened for in all diabetics.