The association between glycated albumin, glycohemoglobin, and glycated albumin to glycohemoglobin ratio in diabetic retinopathy of prediabetes.

Prediabetes increased risk of diabetes and diabetes-related macrovascular and microvascular complication. Glycohemoglobin (HbA _1c ) is clinically used as the gold standard for glycemic control of diabetes. Glycated albumin (GA) is an early Amadori-type glycation protein between glucose and serum albumin, which changes in a shorter period of time than HbA _1c and is superior to HbA _1c in reflecting fluctuations in blood glucose. In this study, we aim to assess the predictive value of GA and glycohemoglobin (HbA1c) on a progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in prediabetic patients in Taiwan. This study was conducted at the outpatient department of a regional hospital in Southern Taiwan, and recruited 291 patients with prediabetes from January 2016 to February 2017. Blood and urine samples were obtained from all patients after fasting for 12 hours within 1 month of enrollment. The mean age is 62.5 ± 13.0 years and there are 161 males and 130 females. A total of 24.1% of patients have DR. The average value of GA and HbA1c are 14.6% ± 2.8% and 6.0% ± 0.4%, respectively. Old age, male, high systolic blood pressure, high HbA _1C , and low total cholesterol are significantly associated with DR in patients with pre-DM. Therefore, in the prediabetic populations, high HbA _1C, but not GA nor GA/HbA _1C ratio, is significantly associated with DR.
(© 2019 The Authors. The Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Australia on behalf of Kaohsiung Medical University.)