Assessment of skin autofluorescence in children with diabetes mellitus type

Abstract

Objective: To measure skin autofluorescence in children and adolescents suffering from type 1 diabetes mellitus and evaluate its relationship with gender, age, experience, and chronic complications of the disease. Materials and methods: The study group included 47 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Autofluorescence of the skin from the inner surface of the shoulder and nail of patients was measured using an original compact spectrofluorimeter based on the STS-VIS OCEAN OPTICS © USA microspectrometer with UVA excitation. Statistical analysis was carried out using StatsoftStatistica 12.0 software. The data is presented as a two-dimensional array. The UV LED signal was averaged and smoothed using the moving average method with a 10 nm window. Then the spectra were renormalized taking into account the found coefficients. The result of applying additional normalization is a decrease in the standard deviation. Results and discussion: Significant differences were revealed in the skin fluorescence spectra of children of different ages. Between age groups (5-7) and (8-12) is most significant in the region of the alpha band of oxyhemoglobin (540 nm) (p < 0.005). When using I-normalization, the NADH peak region (p < 0.02) is significant with increasing disease duration. When studying the influence of gender factors on the level of skin autofluorescence, the most significant differences are found in the area of only the isosbestic points of deoxy and oxyhemoglobin 442 nm (p < 10-7) and 491 nm (p < 10-8). Significant differences in skin autofluorescence at the reference length were also obtained waves in the autofluorescence spectrum of 500 nm correspond to p < 10-14, depending on the presence of complications. Conclusion: In Russia, as well as throughout the world, there is an increase in the incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus. For early diagnosis of changes in carbohydrate metabolism and complications of the disease, a simple, accessible, non-invasive research method is needed. Taking into account the results of our study, when creating non-invasive methods for monitoring the state of carbohydrate metabolism, it is necessary to take into account gender and age characteristics, experience, and the presence of complications of type 1 diabetes mellitus.