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Rheological determinants of red blood cell aggregation in diabetic patients in relation to their metabolic control
Author(s) -
Elishkevitz K.,
Fusman R.,
Koffler M.,
Shapira I.,
Zeltser D.,
Avitzour D.,
Arber N.,
Berliner S.,
Rotstein R.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
diabetic medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.474
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1464-5491
pISSN - 0742-3071
DOI - 10.1046/j.1464-5491.2002.00674.x
Subject(s) - erythrocyte aggregation , medicine , erythrocyte sedimentation rate , diabetes mellitus , metabolic control analysis , fibrinogen , triglyceride , hemoglobin , red blood cell , endocrinology , logistic regression , red cell , cholesterol
Aims To determine whether increased red blood cell adhesiveness/aggregation in diabetic patients is related to the extent of their metabolic control. Methods We measured erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation in a group of 85 adult patients with diabetes mellitus by using citrated venous whole blood and a simple slide test. The erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation was determined by measuring the size of the spaces that are formed between the aggregated erythrocytes. We divided the patients into those with either low or high erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation values. Results The erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation values of the two groups differed significantly in terms of their fibrinogen concentration, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, high sensitive C‐reactive protein (CRP), total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations. There was no difference between the two groups regarding the concentrations of HbA 1c . Logistic regression was applied to construct a model to predict the belonging of a patient in the low or high erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation group. A linear regression was applied to construct a model to predict the erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation values. Both models turned out to include gender, age, fibrinogen, triglyceride, retinopathy, coronary artery disease and age and gender interaction. Neither HbA 1c nor CRP entered the models. Conclusions The degree of erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation and several variables of the acute‐phase response in patients with diabetes mellitus are not directly related to the degree of metabolic control as evaluated by means of HbA 1c concentration. Diabetic patients might benefit from rheological or anti‐inflammatory interventions regardless of their metabolic control.