C-Reactive Protein and Insulin Resistance in Subjects With Thalassemia Minor and a Family History of Diabetes
- Peter C.Y. Tong, PHD1,
- Maggie C.Y. Ng, PHD1,
- Chung S. Ho, PHD2,
- Wing Y. So, MRCP1,
- June K.Y. Li, MRCP1,
- Chris W.K. Lam, PHD2,
- Clive S. Cockram, MD1 and
- Juliana C.N. Chan, MD1
- 1Department of Medicine & Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong
- 2Department of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong
Insulin resistance is common in hemoglobinopathy including thalassemias. Excessive iron deposition in the liver is associated with a high prevalence of glucose intolerance in patients with hemoglobinopathy requiring repeated blood transfusion (1). In Hong Kong, up to 8.5% of pregnant women have thalassemia trait (2), which is a minor form of thalassemia and does not require blood transfusion. Furthermore, nearly 50% of patients with type 2 diabetes <35 years of age have a family history of diabetes (3). Both conditions share the common feature of insulin resistance. We postulate that there may be a clustering of these disorders in susceptible individuals. We therefore conducted a case-control study of subjects with normal glucose tolerance to examine the relationship among thalassemias, liver function tests, and index of insulin …
