Apolipoproteins AI and B and plasma lipid values in well-treated diabetic patients from Romania.

This review is aiming to study the values of apolipoprotein AI and B and plasma lipid levels (total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglyceride) in well-treated diabetic patients, and their possible relationship with hemoglobin A1, body mass index and insulin levels. The study groups were 26 insulin-dependent diabetic (IDDM) patients, 30 non-insulin-dependent diabetic (NIDDM) subjects and 20 non diabetic subjects (controls). Apolipoprotein AI concentrations were similar in the three groups, but apolipoprotein B values and apo B/apo AI ratio were significantly higher in IDDM as related to NIDDM patients (p < 0.001) and to non-diabetic subjects (p < 0.001). We were not able to find significant differences concerning plasma lipid values between the three groups. We found a weak correlation between apo B and hemoglobin AI in IDDM (r = 0.45; 0.02 < p < 0.05), but not in NIDDM patients. Body mass index was not related to the values of apolipoproteins AI and B. We found a positive but weak correlation between insulin levels and triglyceride (r = 0.42), and an inverse one with HDL cholesterol (r = 0.57; 0.02 < p < 0.05) in non-diabetic subjects only, while in NIDDM patients these associations were even less significant. Plasma insulin values strongly correlate to body mass index in both NIDDM (r = 0.64; p < 0.001) and in control subjects (r = 0.73; 0.001 < p < 0.001).