Level of serum fructosamine in Saudi diabetic patients.

Fructosamine, a compound used to measure serum glycosylated proteins was assayed in 105 Saudi diabetic subjects and 54 healthy non-diabetic Saudi subjects. Fructosamine concentrations in diabetics were significantly higher than in healthy controls (p less than 0.0005). Fructosamine concentrations correlated significantly with fasting blood glucose and HbA1 in diabetics (r = 0.677, p less than 0.0005, and r = 0.598, p less than 0.0005, respectively). The correlation between fructosamine and HbA1 was significant in the oral hypoglycemic-treated diabetics and poor in the insulin-treated diabetic group (r = 0.568, p less than 0.0005, and r = 0.526, p = 0.01). Fructosamine concentrations correlated poorly with the duration of diabetes (r = 0.221, p less than 0.05).