Plasma fibrinogen and its relationship to plasma sialic acid in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Serum or plasma sialic acid (SA) has been shown to be a possible risk factor for cardiovascular disease and to be elevated in diabetes mellitus. We postulated that plasma SA may be related to plasma fibrinogen, another reputed cardiovascular risk factor. We decided to test this hypothesis in 27 patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and 27 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Plasma fibrinogen was significantly elevated in the diabetic patients compared with the control subjects (3.4 +/- 1.5 g/l versus 2.2 +/- 0.6 g/l, P < 0.001). Similarly, plasma SA was elevated in the diabetic patients in comparison with the control subjects (0.74 +/- 0.14 g/l versus 0.62 +/- 0.08 g/l, P < 0.001). There was a strong univariate correlation between plasma fibrinogen and plasma SA in both NIDDM patients (r = 0.80, P < 0.001) and control subjects (r = 0.54, P < 0.01).