Changes in glycosylated proteins in diabetic and non-diabetic patients with and without cardiovascular complications

The objective of this study was to find the changes in glycoprotein composition in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients with and without cardiovascular complications. The study was carried out in Ziauddin Medical University Karachi, Pakistan. Eighty-three patients and control subjects were selected. Among them twenty-one were diabetic patients without any clinical evidence of chronic diabetic complications, twenty-one were diabetic patients with cardiovascular complications, twenty were non-diabetic patients with cardiovascular complications and twenty-one apparently normal, age, sex and weight matched control subjects were investigated. All these patients were selected on clinical grounds from National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, Karachi. Fasting plasma glucose was increased in all diabetic patients and correlated significantly with and without cardiovascular complications. Fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated haemoglobin, glycosylated plasma proteins, serum fructosamine, sialic acid, hexosamine and total serum protein and its fractions were increased in diabetic patients with and without cardiovascular complications. Fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated haemoglobin, glycosylated plasma proteins, serum fructosamine, sialic acid and hexosamine were not different in diabetic patients with cardiovascular complications and diabetic patients without chronic complications as compared with control subjects. In conclusion, fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated haemoglobin, glycosylated plasma proteins, serum fructosamine, sialic acid, hexosamine and total serum proteins and its fractions were increased in diabetic patients with and without complications, but these parameters remained within normal limits in non-diabetic patients with cardiovascular complications.