Predictive value of C-Reactive Protein/Albumin ratio in patients with chronic complicated diabetes mellitus

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between serum C-reactive protein (CRP)/albumin (ALB) ratio and complication occurrence in patients with Type-II diabetes mellitus with at least one chronic complication. METHODS: The CAR, demographic characteristics, and other parameters of 108 patients with at least one chronic diabetic complication who attended to the internal medicine outpatient clinic between January 1, 2017, and September 1, 2018, were retrospectively evaluated. Healthy control subjects who did not have any systemic or infectious diseases were also included in the study. I compared the CAR, demographics, and other blood parameters between the two groups were compared. RESULTS: The mean CAR levels were significantly higher in diabetic patients with at least one complication compared to the control group (0.15 [0.07 - 0.29] vs 0.07 [0.07 - 0.07], respectively, p<0.001). There was no significant correlation between CAR and diabetic complications, including neuropathy, nephropathy, coronary artery disease, and retinopathy in the patient group (p>0.05 for all). In the receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis, there was no significant cut-off point for CAR predicting diabetic complications. CONCLUSIONS: Although serum CAR levels were significantly higher in complicated diabetic patients compared to controls, any validated CAR value for predicting diabetic complications were not observed.