ABSTRACT
Diabetes is a common endocrine disease and its complications are major stimuli for the enhancement of efforts towards its control. At present, glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c] is used for long term control of glucose levels in diabetic patients, but due to lack of availability of a standard control method, recent findings suggest that insulin-like growth factor-I [IGF-I] may be used as a biomarker for glycaemic control. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between IGF-I and glycaemic control measured as fasting plasma glucose [FPG] and HbA1c in Type 1 diabetes
Materials and Methods: we designed a cross-sectional case-control study with systematic random sampling. The study included 26 newly diagnosed patients with Type 1 diabetes [15 male and 11 female; mean age 23.7+/-9.1 years] and 26 healthy controls [9 male and 17 female; mean age 24.1+/-4.4 years]. The concentrations of FPG, IGF-I, HbA1c and IGF-binding protein-3 [IGFBP-3] were measured in both groups. FPG was measured by the enzymatic glucose oxidase method and the colorimetric method was used to measure HbA1c. Determination of serum IGF-I and IGFBP-3 total levels was carried out using immunoassay. P<0.05 was considered as statistically significant
Results: the mean value of IGF-I concentration in Type 1 diabetics was significantly lower than in controls [p<0.05]. No correlation was found between IGF-I and HbA1c in the patients
Conclusion: our data shows that total IGF-I levels are low in patients with Type 1 diabetes. No relationship was found between IGF-I and glycaemic control. However, more detailed intensive studies to further investigate this relationship are recommended