Hematocrit in type 1 diabetics

Abstract

Reduced hematocrit (H) in diabetic patients with vascular complications has been found in several studies, but this fact remains uncompletely understood. In 159 type 1 diabetics we measured packed cell volume (PCV) during a complete check-up of diabetic complications. On the whole sample, PCV was lower in the 98 patients exhibiting detectable complications (40.511 %± 0.483 vs ± 42.211 ± 0.541, p < 0.03) when compared to the 61 others. However when studying separately men and women, the most significant result was found in men with macroangiopathy, who had a lowered PCV (38.4 ± 0.358 vs 44.33 ± 0.667 p < 0.01), while in women this difference did not reach the significance. Neuropathy, retinopathy or microalbuminuria alone were not associated with significantly reduced PCV. The lowest values were found in subjects with overt nephropathy, who must be considered separately since moderate anemia could result from chronic renal failure. In this study, H lowering seems to be multifactorial and is mainly found in macroangiopathy. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed.