Introduction: Raised serum homocysteine levels have been found to be risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. In the present study we have tried to assess the correlation of serum homocysteine levels with microvascular complications in patients of Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Materials and Methods: A total of 80 randomly selected Type 2 diabetes patients were grouped into two categories: Group A consisted of those patients who had diabetes with microvascular complication and Group B included diabetic patients without any complication. Group C (controls) included 20 healthy age and sex matched subjects. Detailed history was taken and thorough clinical examination was done with relevant investigations.

Results: Significant positive correlation was found between duration of diabetes and serum homocysteine levels (Chi square value = 7.0839 with p-value 0.02).  Inter –group analysis of mean homocysteine levels showed that homocysteine levels in patients having all the three microvascular complications were highest as compared to rest of the patients (F value = 8.26 and p value = 0.000). Correlation between homocysteine levels and HbA1C levels was not significant.

Conclusion: It could be concluded from the present study that a moderate positive correlation exists between duration of diabetes and serum homocysteine levels. The levels of serum homocysteine correlated positively with microvascular complications of diabetes. Thus serum homocysteine could be used as surrogate biomarker for diabetic microvascular complications.

Keywords: Type 2 diabetes , serum homocysteine , microvascular complications, diabetes in western UP

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Dr Alankar Tiwari

Senior Resident, Department of Human Metabolism and Endocrinology, Meerut UP