Elevated concentrations of C-reactive protein in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus are moderately influenced by glycemic control.

The aim of this study was to establish whether glycemic control results in decrease of C-reactive protein (CRP) in Type 2 diabetic subjects. Newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetic subjects were recruited and followed-up by 6-month intensive medical management. All the participants were carefully interviewed, clinically examined, and laboratory tested to exclude conditions likely to provoke an inflammatory response, which was an exclusion criterium. CRP was measured by automated microparticle enzyme immunoassay (IMx, Abbott Laboratories, USA). Two-hundred and forty-eight patients were included in the analysis of data. At baseline, average CRP levels were of 9.6 +/- 6.2 mg/l. Only 14 (5.7%) patients showed a fasting glucose equal or lower than 6.1 mmo/l (5.6 +/- 0.4 mmo/l); of them, 6 (42.8%) had elevated CRP levels (8.8 +/- 6.7 mg/l). The fasting glucose in the 234 (94.3%) non-controlled subjects was 13.1 +/- 4.8 mmol/l; of them 179 (76.5%) subjects showed elevated CRP levels (10.9 +/- 6.5 mg/I). At the end of the 6-month follow-up, the average fasting glucose and HbA1c in the overall group decreased from 12.5 +/- 5.0 to 9.0 +/- 1.6 mmol/l, p < 0.00001, and 13.0 +/- 4.9 to 8.9 +/- 2.9%, p < 0.00001, which resulted in a significant reduction of CRP levels (9.6 +/- 6.2 to 6.3 +/- 3.0 mg/l, p < 0.00001). Seventy-one (28.6%) patients reached glycemic control; however, only 29 (40.8%) of them reduced the CRP levels to 3 mg/l or less (1.3 +/- 1.9 mg/l), and the remaining 42 controlled patients maintained high CRP concentration (4.2 +/- 1.2 mg/I), p < 0.00001. Concentration of CRP is moderately influenced by glycemic control in the Type 2 diabetic subjects.