Relationship between Serum Ferritin and Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract To find out the relationship between serum ferritin (SF) & serum insulin (SI) levels in type-2 DM and to study the influence of body iron stores on various biochemical parameters and diabetic complications. Settings and Design: Postgraduate Department of Medicine in tertiary care hospital in North India. Observational study. A total of 50 obese type-2 diabetic patients were selected randomly and were compared with an equal number of age, sex, BMI matched controls to find out co-relation between SF and SI levels. Influence of body iron stores on various biochemical parameters like Hb(A1c), total cholesterol(TC),Triglyceride(TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL), uric acid (UA) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) as well as development on diabetic complications was also studied.A directly proportional relationship was found between SF and SI levels. The correlation between SF and SI was significant. Diabetics with increased level of SF had significantly poor glycemic control reflected by higher levels of Hb(A1c). Significant relationship was found between increased SF and increased TC, TG and UA except LDL levels in diabetic patients and with decreased serum HDL levels. A similar relationship was evident between increased SF and nephropathy, retinopathy neuropathy and hypertension, where as, there was non significant relationship found between increased SF and peripheral vascular disease and ischemic heart disease.It is clear from the present study that increased SF levels are associated with increased SI levels reflecting insulin resistance, poor glycemic control and complications of type-2 D