RESUMEN
The aim of this study was to assess one of the coagulation parameters, protein C, in insulin-dependent diabetic children and to find out its relation to the development of vascular changes manifested by microalbuminuria and to the glycemic control indices in diabetic children. The study was performed on 46 children including 24 diabetic patients with normoalbuminuria [mean age 11.2 +/- 1.9 years], 10 patients with microalbuminuria [mean age 13.5 +/- 1.23 years] and 12 healthy children of comparable age and sex with the patients as a control group. All children were subjected to full history taking, thorough physical examination, anthropometric assessment, fundus examination and laboratory investigations including a measurement of complete blood picture [CBC], fasting blood sugar [FBS], glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c], cholesterol [CH], triglycerides [TG], microalbuminuria and protein C [PC] levels. There was a highly significant increase in plasma PC level in diabetic children when compared with the controls and this increase was significantly more in microalbuminuric than in normoalbuminuric children. Moreover, PC level was significantly positively correlated with the duration of the disease and with other parameters and indices of diabetic control including HbA1c, CH, TG and microalbuminuria, which indicated that PC assessment could be used as a predictor of development of vascular complications as atherosclerosis and nephropathy in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus