4/2007Inflammatory and angiogenic factors in children with diabetic retinopathy

KATARZYNA ZORENA (Zakład Immunologii Akademii Medycznej w Gdańsku, Kierownik: prof. dr hab. med. Jolanta Myśliwska)

Background
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Material and methods
The study was carried out on a group of 186 children aged 13.8 ± 3.2 with longstanding diabetes mellitus type 1. All of them were patients of Diabetological Department of the Clinic of Pediatrics, Hematology, Oncology and Endocrinology at Medical University of Gdańsk. The control group consisted of 62 healthy children. Diabetic children had 24hrs urine albumin excretion rate, HbA1c, and C-peptide levels measured. They underwent 24hrs blood pressure monitoring and had ophthalmologic examination. Additionally, all the children had serum IL-6 and VEGF level measured using an ELISA test, while level of CRP was measured using a highly sensitive test (HsCR).

Results
The analysed group of children with longstanding diabetes mellitus type 1 was subdivided into two groups: children diagnosed to have retinopathy and children showing no sign of retinopathy. Statistically significant differences between these two groups were found in relation to the patient’s age (p = 0.01), duration of the disease (p = 0.002), HbA1C level (p = 0.007), 24hrs urinary albumin excretion rate (p = 0.01) and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.016). The group of diabetic children with retinopathy had statistically significant elevated serum CRP (p = 0.03), IL-6 (p = 0.01) and VEGF levels (p = 0.03) in relation to children without retinopathy.

Key words: CRP, IL-6, VEGF, children, diabetes mellitus type 1, retinopathy