Does von Willebrand Factor Have an Effect on the Occurrence of the Diabetic Complications?

It has been reported that von Willebrand factor (vWf) plays a role in the development of complications of diabetes mellitus. The relationships between vWf and polyneuropathy, nephropathy, and retinopathy were investigated in the patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. 58 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (22 men and 36 women, mean age 54 ± 9 ) and 30 healthy nondiabetic controls (12 men and 18 women, mean age 40 ± 11) were admitted to this study. They were examined by an internist, a neurologist and an ophtalmologist for complications of diabetes mellitus. Electromyography was performed to all the patients. The mean vWf levels of the patients and control group were 1.48 ± 0.55 and 1.25 ± 0.32 IU/mL respectively. There was no significant difference between the two groups (p= 0.146). Diabetic retinopathy in 18 patients (31%), polyneuropathy in 20 patients (34.5%), trap neuropathy in 5 patients (8.6%), microalbuminuria in 9 patients (15.5%), macroalbuminuria in 2 patients (3.5%) and normoalbuminuria in 47 patients (81%) were detected. The difference between vWf levels of the patients with retinopathy and without retinopathy were not statistically significant (p= 0.913). There was no significant difference between patients with polyneuropathy and without polyneuropathy group (p= 0.737). There was also no difference between trap neuropathy and without trap neuropathy (p= 0.431), and between polyneuropathy and trap neuropathy (p= 0.246) patient subgroups. The vWf levels in normoalbuminuric, microalbuminuric and macroalbuminuric patient groups were not different (p values: 0.526, 0.392 and 0.759 respectively). vWf levels between patients with complications of diabetes mellitus and control group were not different (p> 0.05). There was not a significant correlation between the vWf level and body mass index, serum glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, VLDL-C, platelet counts, fibrinogen levels, prothrombin and activated thromboplastin times in 33 patients with any complication of diabetes mellitus (p> 0.05). We conclude that, vWf has not an effect in the development of complications in patients with diabetes mellitus.