Urinary Cadmium in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in DM Clinic, Thasala Hospital, Nakhon Sri Thummarat

Abstract

The incidence and severity of type 2 diabetes mellitus are known to be associated with environmental pollutants including cadmium.  The purpose of this study was to investigate the cadmium levels and the risk of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus at DM clinic, Thasala hospital, Nakhon Sri Thummarat. Twenty-two diabetic patients and twenty-three apparently healthy non-diabetic individuals were recruited through the purposive sampling method.  After an overnight fasting, blood and morning urine samples were collected from each subject to determine fasting blood sugar and cadmium levels in urine, respectively. The geometric mean of urine cadmium was significantly higher in diabetic patients when compared with the healthy control (p<0.05).  Moreover, the study found positive correlation between cadmium levels in urine and fasting plasma glucose (r=0.295) with no statistically significant difference. Although this study is subject to limitation on the number of samples.  The preliminary study showed that cadmium might play an important role in the development and pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus in general population. However, these findings require confirmation through additional epidemiological and biological research for prevention control and therapeutic of diabetic mellitus.