Assessment of plasma fibrinogen as a marker of diabetic nephropathy

Abstract

Diabetes is one of the most common chronic hyperglycemic syndrome. Diabetic Nephropathy is one of the major complications of DM characterized by persistent albuminuria, increased arterial blood pressure, a relentless decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) & a high risk of cardiovascular morbidity & mortality. The biological marker of DN is fibrinogen. Fibrinogen, is increased in diabetic patients. An increase in plasma fibrinogen levels is also considered an independent risk factor for diabetic nephropathy. Fibrinogen is the major coagulation protein in blood.To find out whether the levels of Plasma Fibrinogen levels can be used as markers for the early diagnosis of DN.A case control study. The study includes total of 150 patients, of which 50 were diabetic without any complications, 50 were diabetic nephropathy patients and remaining 50 were age matched healthy controls. The mean plasma fibrinogen level in control group was 190.34 ± 72.83 mg/dl. The mean plasma fibrinogen levels in DM & DN groups were 522.76 ± 115.79 mg/dl & 657.64 ± 124.61 mg/dl respectively. In our study, fibrinogen levels were increased significantly in DM group compared to controls which was further increased in DN group. Hence above studies interpret that fibrinogen increases in diabetes with complications.Fibrinogen correlated positively with FBS, HbA, TC, triglyceride, LDL, Blood Urea, serum creatinine, TC/HDL, LDL/HDL & urine A/C ratio in both DM & DN group, whereas there was negative correlation of fibrinogen with HDL & eGFR. Thus fibrinogen could be used as early biomarkers for the diagnosis of DN.