[Characteristics of the circadian rhythm of hydroxyprolinuria in diabetics]

A total of 79 healthy persons (32 men and 47 women) and 109 patients with obvious diabetes mellitus (44 men and 65 women) were examined. The purpose of the investigation was to study the intensity of hydroyxproline excretion in the day-time and at night in the healthy persons and patients with diabetes mellitus with relation to sex, age, clinical type of a course of diabetes and the presence of vascular changes, duration and degree of disease activity and the state of compensation of diabetes mellitus. During a day the examinees collected two portions of urine: daily (6 a. m. to 10 p. m.) and night (10 p. m. to 6 a. m.) in which the concentration of hydroxyproline (in mumol/l) was determined and the intensity of hydroxyprolinuria was calculated (nmol/min), and these indices were determined for the entire daily cycle, too. The degree of expression of changes in hydroxyprolinuria in diabetes mellitus was shown to depend on sex and clinical type of disease: a more significant increase in hydroxyprolinuria was observed in the women, especially in insulin-dependent diabetes, whereas in the male patients such differences were less noticeable. The circadian rhythm was also more disturbed in the women. The determination of the intensity of hydroxyproline excretion can be used for the assessment of a degree of compensation of metabolic processes and the efficacy of therapeutic measures in diabetes mellitus.