The Role of Iron in Diabetes and Its Complications
Reponse to Swaminathan et al.
- Giovanni Targher, MD1,
- Massimo Franchini, MD2,
- Martina Montagnana, MD3 and
- Giuseppe Lippi, MD3
- 1Section of Endocrinology, Department of Biomedical and Surgical Sciences, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy
- 2Service of Immunohematology and Transfusion, Civil Hospital, Verona, Italy
- 3Section of Clinical Chemistry, Department of Biomedical and Morphological Sciences, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy
- Address correspondence to Dr. Giovanni Targher, Section of Endocrinology, Department of Biomedical and Surgical Sciences, University of Verona, Ospedale Civile Maggiore, Piazzale Stefani, 1, 37126 Verona, Italy. E-mail: giovanni.targher{at}univr.it
Markers of fatty liver such as γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT) are independently associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (1). Some recent studies have shown that hyperferritinemia may also predict new-onset type 2 diabetes (2).
We assessed the cross-sectional relationships between ferritin, GGT, and glucose intolerance status in a large cohort of adults. We performed a retrospective analysis on the database of our clinical chemistry laboratory to retrieve results of serum ferritin, GGT, lipids, glucose (fasting plasma glucose [FPG]), and C-reactive protein (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP]) tests, which were performed on the whole cohort of outpatient adults (aged ≥35 years) consecutively referred …
