Kern T S, Engerman R L, Peterson C M
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53706.
J Diabet Complications. 1989 Jul-Sep;3(3):158-62. doi: 10.1016/0891-6632(89)90039-1.
Blood viscosity was investigated in alloxan-diabetic dogs and in dogs made experimentally hyperglycemic by a galactose-rich diet. The diabetics were prospectively assigned to levels of glycemic control ranging from poor to good. After up to 5 years of study, the blood viscosity of hyperglycemic diabetic animals was significantly greater than normal at both high (100 sec-1) and low (0.1 sec-1) shear rates. Blood viscosity at the low shear rate correlated closely with fibrinogen concentration, (r = 0.75; p less than 0.02) but not with HbA1 concentration (r = 0.14) in the diabetics. Galactosemic animals likewise had elevated blood viscosity at the low shear rate, but the correlation of viscosity with fibrinogen concentration in those animals was not statistically significant (r = 0.42). Plasma viscosity tended to be elevated in both diabetes and galactosemia, but not to a statistically significant degree.
