Early detection of impaired glucose tolerance in patients with cystic fibrosis and predisposition factors.

INTRODUCTION

The number of patients with glucose tolerance alterations associated with cystic fibrosis (CF) has increased, probably due to the greater survival rate among sufferers of this disease. We studied impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in patients with CF and investigated whether its appearance has any relationship with age, sex, genetic mutation and/or the degree of clinical involvement. We assessed the parameters that might allow early detection.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

In 28 patients with CF (14 M, 14 F; aged 22 months to 18 years), sex, genetic mutation, nutritional status and the degree of pancreatic and pulmonary involvement were recorded. The metabolic study included glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) determination, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTT).

RESULTS

In the patients with CF, 35.71% showed impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and 3.57% had diabetes mellitus. The patients with IGT and CF were 3.2 years older than those with normal glucose tolerance (NGT; p<0.05), but no significant differences were found regarding sex, anthropometric measurements, percentage of pulmonary gammagraphic involvement, Shwachman-Kulczycki test or HbA1c. In the OGTT, the patients homozygous for the deltaF508 mutation had higher blood glucose values than the heterozygous group (p=0.03), but these values were not higher than those in patients with other mutations. During the OGTT, blood insulin values at 30' were reduced in patients with IGT compared to patients with NGT (p<0.02) and the insulin peak occurred at 100.9+/-24.3 min compared to 65.3+/-21.8, respectively (p<0.05). In the IVGTT, 82.14% of the patients had reduced insulin levels at 1 and 3 min (I1'+3'). No differences in the blood glucose levels during the OGTT were found between patients with normal I1'+3' values and patients with reduced values.

CONCLUSIONS

A high percentage of patients with CF also present with IGT. This increases with age and is more common among patients homozygous for the deltaF508 mutation and is not related to clinical status. Alterations in the kinetics of insulin secretion play an important role in the appearance of IGT and CF. We suggest that the OGTT is a more sensitive method than IVGTT for identifying early alterations in CF-related diabetes mellitus.