Trends in Total Antioxidant Status and Other Biochemical Parameters in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Case-control Study

Owing to the existing evidence of the implication of oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the present study aims to investigate the correlation of serum total antioxidant status (TAS) with comorbidities, various biochemical parameters, and duration of T2DM. Various factors contributing to disease prevalence and trends in other biochemical parameters are assessed.

A retrospective observational study of 246 patients with T2DM whose data were retrieved from the Proficiency Health Diagnostic Lab System in Al Ain. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program.

The prevalence of T2DM was found to be higher in gender (male), age (≥45 years), ethnicity (Middle Eastern), BMI (≥25), family history, and metabolic syndrome (hypertension and dyslipidemia). TAS was found to be significantly higher in patients with comorbidities, than in those without, particularly dyslipidemia and micro-albuminuria (p<0.05). TAS was weakly positively correlated with various T2DM biochemical parameters (p<0.05), except for Fasting blood glucose (FBG) (p=0.061). TAS was weakly negatively correlated with BMI (≥25) (p=0.042). Albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) was statistically higher in hypertensives than normotensives (p=0.049). Duration of disease was only significantly correlated with ACR (r=0.325, p=0.001). Uric acid levels were statistically higher in patients with microalbuminuria than in patients without microalbuminuria (p=0.001).

TAS was higher in patients with dyslipidemia and microalbuminuria, suggesting the influence of other factors such as uric acid and lipid-lowering agents. TAS could be an important factor in the management of T2DM cases. This needs to be further investigated in future studies to fill the gap found in the literature.