title: Glycated albumin is set lower in relation to plasma glucose levels in patients with Cushing's syndrome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Glycated albumin (GA) is an indicator of glycemic control, which has some specific characters in comparison with HbA1c. Since glucocorticoids (GC) promote protein catabolism including serum albumin, GC excess state would influence GA levels. We therefore investigated GA levels in patients with Cushing's syndrome.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 16 patients with Cushing's syndrome (8 patients had diabetes mellitus and the remaining 8 patients were non-diabetic). Thirty-two patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 32 non-diabetic subjects matched for age, sex and BMI were used as controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the patients with Cushing's syndrome, GA was significantly correlated with HbA1c, but the regression line shifted downwards as compared with the controls. The GA/HbA1c ratio in the patients with Cushing's syndrome was also significantly lower than the controls. HbA1c in the non-diabetic patients with Cushing's syndrome was not different from the non-diabetic controls, whereas GA was significantly lower. In 7 patients with Cushing's syndrome who performed self-monitoring of blood glucose, the measured HbA1c was matched with HbA1c estimated from mean blood glucose, whereas the measured GA was significantly lower than the estimated GA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We clarified that GA is set lower in relation to plasma glucose levels in patients with Cushing's syndrome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Metabolic Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuhiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otsuki
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tamada
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tabuchi
authors.forename: Kosuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mukai
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: Soji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kasayama
authors.forename: Iichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Shimomura
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koga
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D003480:Cushing Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000097:blood*; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism; D017127:Glycation End Products, Advanced; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000378:metabolism*; D000093423:Glycated Serum Albumin
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D017127:Glycation End Products, Advanced; D007328:Insulin; D012709:Serum Albumin; D000093423:Glycated Serum Albumin; C517652:hemoglobin A1c protein, human
keywords: Cushing's syndrome; Glucocorticoid; Glycated albumin; HbA1c; Type 2 diabetes mellitus