COMPA RISON OF LEVELS OF IgG, IgA, AND IgM IN DIABETIC PATIENTS WITH DIFFERENT GLYCEMIC CONTROLS

Immunoglobulins G, A, and M have been reponed to be present in statistically significant higher levels in diabetic patients compared to healthy comrols. II may be conceived that the levels of immunoglobulins might be significantly higher in diabetics with long-lasting (months of) poor control than in peers with an equally long term period of good control. To assess this possibility, we measured and compared serum levels of IgG, IgA, and IgM in two diabetic populations one consisting of 27 patients with mean values of at least monthly-measured fasting plasma sugars during the 3 months prior to the study of 140 mg/dL or less, and the second group consisting of 34 diabetics with mean levels of fasting plasma glucoses for each patient during the same interval in excess of 160 mg/dL. We found that, while the mean blood sugars were remarkably different between the groups (P <0.00 I), the difference between mean values of serum immunoglobulins were not statistically significant (P-values more than 0.3, 0.8, and 0.8 for IgG, IgA, and IgM, respectively). We conclude that no relationship exists between longlasting glycemic controls and serum immunoglobulin levels in diabetics.