Association Between Serum Homocysteine Levels and Severity of Diabetic Kidney Disease in 489 Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Single-Center Study

BACKGROUND: This study from a single center aimed to investigate the association between serum homocysteine (Hcy) levels and severity of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) in 489 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). MATERIAL/METHODS: A total of 1163 patients with T2DM, including 674 T2DM without kidney disease (T2DM group) and 489 T2DM with DKD (DKD group), were evaluated. The DKD group was subdivided according to the chronic kidney disease (CKD) and albuminuria staging criteria in “Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes 2012 clinical practice guideline” to quantify the severity of DKD: CKD stage 1 (n=164), CKD stage 2 (n=103), CKD stage 3 (n=95), CKD stage 4 (n=71), and CKD stage 5 (n=56) and stage A1 (n=57), stage A2 (n=250), and stage A3 (n=182), respectively. Peripheral blood was collected after 8 hours of fasting to test Hcy levels. RESULTS: In CKD stages, Hcy levels gradually increased with increasing DKD severity (CKD stage 1 to 5); while in albuminuria stages, Hcy levels did not gradually increase with increasing DKD severity (stage A1 to A3). Hcy was an independent risk factor for CKD stages 2–5 (P<0.05), and had no effect on the albuminuria stages (P>0.05), while it may indirectly affect the occurrence of albuminuria stages through its impact on estimated glomerular filtration rate. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between Hcy level and DKD severity was related to the different staging methods used. Hcy was an independent risk factor for CKD stages but not albuminuria stages.