It was planned in this work to clarify the role of endothelin and nitric
oxide as markers of endothelium malfunction, which is a gate of vascular
complications in diabetes mellitus. In order to achieve this goal, this study
was carried out on 75 subjects. 60 of them were diabetic patients, classified
into 2 groups. Group I consisted of 35 non-insulin dependent diabetics
with mean age of 50.24 + 17.29 years including 18 males and 17 females
Group II consisted of 25 insulin dependent diabetics with mean
age of 37.73 + 13.15 years including 14 males and 11 females. The rest
15 subjects were well cross-matched apparent healthy volunteers with
mean age of 45.13 + 10.52 years including 9 males and 6 females as a
control group or group 111. All subjects under study were subjected to a
thorough history and clinical examination. Also, all subjects under study
were subjected to laboratory investigations including fasting and 2-hours
post-prandial plasma glucose, glycated hemoglobin, urine analysis for microalbumin,
serum creatinirte level, lipid pattern including total cholesterol.
triglycerides HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol. plasma level of endothelin
and plasma level of nitric oxide. According to the results obtained
from this study it was found that: There was a signficant increase of
plasma level of endothelin and decrease of plasma level of nitric oxide in
diabetic patients when compared to the control group. The changes in endothelin
and nitric oxide levels in diabetic patients were more obvious in
the poor controlled diabetic patients. There was no signcant difference
in plasma level of endothelin and nitric oxide between insulin-dependent
diabetic patients and non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients. The clinical
complications (as retirtopathy, hypertension. nephropathy and periph-
era( neuritis) became more sever with the increase in endothelia level and
with the decrease in nitric oxide level. |
