Beta-thromboglobulin and fibrinopeptide A in diabetes mellitus as markers of vascular damage.

Beta-thromboglobulin (BTG) and fibrinopeptide A (FpA) were studied in 68 non-insulin dependent diabetic patients (NIDD) aged 32-81 with a mean duration of diabetes of 9 +/- 0.8 SEM years and 44 healthy controls, comparable for age and sex. Diabetic patients were subdivided into subsets according to the presence of microvascular disease, macrovascular disease or the absence of these lesions. Patients with microangiopathy (micro- and/or macrovascular disease) had higher HbA1 (a-c) (p less than 0.01), higher blood pressure (p less than 0.05) than both healthy controls and uncomplicated diabetics. Plasma BTG was higher in diabetic patients than in healthy controls (p less than 0.02), and was higher in complicated than in non-complicated diabetic subjects. Fpa was higher in complicated than in non-complicated diabetes (p less than 0.05). No differences were observed between the two subsets of complicated patients. In conclusion, we have shown that increased plasma- and platelet-BTG levels are present in non-insulin dependent diabetic subjects, with normal renal function and that plasma BTG is higher in patients with than in those without vascular disease. Fibrinopeptide A, a sensitive marker of in vivo fibrin formation, was significantly increased in NIDD with vascular complications.