High Prevalence of Abnormal Carcinoembryonic Antigen in Diabetic Inpatients with Poor Glycemic Control

Abstract

IntroductionHigher serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was found in diabetic patients rather than controls. However, the prevalence of abnormal CEA among diabetic inpatients with a large proportion of poor glycemic control is unclear.MethodsA total of 385 diabetic inpatients were included in this study. We collected information from a large clinical database. Patients with malignant tumors were excluded by examination and follow-up.ResultsWe found a surprisingly high prevalence (14.3%) of diabetic inpatients with CEA above normal. The proportion of patients with abnormal CEA was significantly different in subgroups with different blood glucose levels, 20.4% in the HbA1c ≥ 9% group, and 8.5% in the HbA1c < 9%, p = 0.000. We found that the CEA levels were correlated with age, body mass index and HbA1c. The regression coefficient of HbA1c was the highest, B = 0.284, p = 0.000. We also found that the CEA levels were higher in diabetic inpatients with BMI < 24 kg/m2 than the overweight or obesity patients. There was a significant difference in the insulin level and C peptide level between the elevated CEA group and the non-elevated CEA group.ConclusionThe elevation of CEA is common in diabetic inpatients, especially those with poor hyperglycemia controlled (HbA1c ≥ 9%). The underlying mechanism may be related to glucose toxicity.