Glycosylated Haemoglobin (HbA1c) - A Marker of Circulating Lipids in Type 2 Diabetic Patients.
BACKGROUND
Diabetic patients with concomitant dyslipidemia are often soft targets for cardiovascular disease and deaths. An early intervention to normalize circulating lipids has been shown to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is routinely used as a marker to indicate long-term glycemic control.


OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to test whether HbA1c can serve as a marker of circulating lipids among Type 2 diabetic patients.


METHODS
The sera of 130 Type 2 diabetic patients was analyzed for fasting blood sugar (FBS), HbA1c and lipid profile consisting of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), High-density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. We divided the subjects based on their glycemic index into three groups; HbA1c< 6% as good, HbA1c>6% - <9% as poor and HbA1c>9% as worst glycemic control. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc Dunnett's multiple comparison tests was used to examine the significance levels for various biochemical parameters in age-categorized groups.


RESULTS
The mean ± SD levels of HbA1c was significantly higher in females (8.598 ± 2.284 %) compared to males (7.323±2.18 %). Older patients had HbA1c, FBS and lipid profile levels similar to younger ones. HbA1c showed direct and significant correlations with cholesterol, TG and LDL. Univariate analysis showed that HbA1c was a good predictor of circulating lipid levels.


CONCLUSIONS
The study indicates the usefulness of HbA1c as a marker for lipid profile for screening of diabetic patients at high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, SRM Medical College, Hospital and Research centre , Kattankulathur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India .
Prabhavathi
P
K
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, M S Ramaiah Medical College and Teaching Hospitals , MSRIT Post, MSR Nagar, Bangalore, Karnataka, India .
Kirthana
K
Kunikullaya U
Professor, Department of Physiology, M S Ramaiah Medical College and Teaching Hospitals , MSRIT Post, MSR Nagar, Bangalore, Karnataka, India .
Jaisri
J
Goturu
Coronary artery disease; Dyslipidemia; Glycemic control