Usefulness of glycated albumin level as a glycemic index complementing glycosylated hemoglobin in diabetic children and adolescents

Abstract

Purpose: Glycated albumin (GA) is a glycemic marker reflecting the average serum glucose of the previous 2 weeks. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of GA as a glycemic index to complement glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in children and adolescents.Methods: Fifty-four children and adolescents with diabetes mellitus (DM) and 97 children and adolescents without DM (NDM) were enrolled. The correlation between mean blood glucose (MG) and GA compared to HbA1c was investigated in the DM group. The correlation between fasting glucose (FG) and GA compared to HbA1c was investigated in the NDM group. Factors affecting GA, HbA1c, and GA/HbA1c were analyzed.Results: In the DM group, positive correlations were observed between MG and GA (<i>P</i>=0.003), between MG and HbA1c (<i>P</i>=0.001), and between GA and HbA1c (<i>P</i><0.001). The correlation coefficient between MG and GA did not differ from that between MG and HbA1c in the DM group (<i>P</i>=0.811). Among patients with DM, those whose standardized body mass index standard deviation score (BMI SDS) was ≥2 had a lower GA/HbA1c compared with those whose BMI SDS was <2 (<i>P</i>=0.001). In the NDM group, there were no significant correlations between FG and GA, between FG and HbA1c, or between GA and HbA1c. The NDM subjects whose BMI SDS was ≥2 had a lower GA/HbA1c than did the NDM subjects whose BMI SDS was <2 (<i>P</i>=0.003).Conclusion: GA is comparable with HbA1c in reflecting glycemic control in children and adolescents with DM. GA is affected by obesity in children and adolescents with or without DM.