Investigation of afamin levels in patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is an important health problem due to its high morbidity and mortality rate, high treatment expenditures, and a important burden to both the patient and the society due to loss of workforce. Diabetic retinopathy included all sub-branches of ophthalmology and all insulin-dependent or independent patients in various age groups. Various biochemical mechanisms may cause the development and progression of diabetic retinopathy by changing glucose metabolism. In our study, the relationship between afamin and some biochemical parameter levels and the presence of retinopathy in diabetic patients was investigated. In the study, serum afamin level was measured by sandwich immunoassay (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay/ELISA) method. Serum glucose, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterol, triglyceride and fructosamine levels were determined by spectrophotometric method with enzymatic method. HbA1C was determined by fully automatic high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Glucose, fructosamine and HbA1C levels were significantly higher in the DM group than in the control group. Serum afamin levels were found to be significantly higher in the DM group than the control group (p<0.05).When DM patients were divided into groups as proliferative, nonproliferative and patients without etinopathy, it was observed that there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of age, disease duration, serum glucose and aphamine levels (p<0.05) Serum glucose and aphamine levels were found to be higher in both proliferative and nonproliferative retinopathy groups compared to DM patients without retinopathy (p<0.05). In terms of serum aphamine levels, there was no significant difference between DM patient groups with proliferative and nonproliferative retinopathy, and between DM patients without retinopathy and the control group. When all participants were evaluated in terms of serum fructosamine levels, a significant increase was found in the proliferative, nonproliferative and non-retinopathy DM patient groups compared to the control group, while there was no significant difference when the DM patient groups were divided into groups according to the presence and type of retinopathy. In the analysis performed on all patients in the diabetes group, a significant correlation was found between serum aphamine levels and serum glucose (p= 0.007, r= 0.365), age (p= 0.001, r= 0.454), and disease duration (p= 0.001, r= 0.469). In addition, there was no significant difference in serum fructosamine, lipid profile and HbA1C (%) between the groups according to the presence and type of retinopathy in DM patients.