Glycated albumin is lower in infants than in adults and correlated with both age and serum albumin.

BACKGROUND

Glycated albumin (GA) reflects glycemic control in patients with neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM). However, GA in NDM patients is apparently low in relation to glycemia.

OBJECTIVE

To establish the reference intervals for GA in healthy infants.

SUBJECTS AND

METHODS

Fifty-eight healthy, full-term newborn infants were used to define the GA reference values and to investigate its relationship to plasma glucose (PG) and serum albumin. The infants were categorized into three groups according to age: group A, 5 (4-6) median (range) d: n = 18; group B, 33 (30-38) d: n = 19; and group C, 181 (50-352) d: n = 21. We also studied 212 non-diabetic adults [group D, 53 (28-78) yr old] and the 5 NDM patients previously reported for GA comparisons.

RESULTS

In the infants, GA was strongly positively correlated with logarithmic transformation of age [log (age)] (p = 0.831, p < 0.0001). The GA in groups A, B, C, and D were 7.3 ± 1.0%, 8.6 ± 1.1%, 10.9 ± 0.8%, and 14.0 ± 1.1%, respectively. The GA was more strongly positively correlated with serum albumin (r = 0.768, p < 0.0001) than with PG (r = 0.596, p < 0.0001). When GA levels were compared with the age-dependent reference values, GA in the transient NDM patient was normalized although GA in the four permanent NDM patients decreased but remained high after insulin therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that the reference range for GA in infants is lower than that of adults and increases with age, with which we confirmed that GA in the NDM patients reflected the clinical course. Consequently, GA in NDM patients should be compared with the age-based reference values to assess the accurate glycemic status.