Determination of ionized calcium level in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients compared to nondiabetic subjects at FEU-NRMF Medical Center from January to June 2011 : a prospective study / Melinda R. Abad-Vencio and Myla V. Custodio.

Abstract: Calcium is essential for insulin-mediated intracellular processsess in insulin-responsive tissues such as skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. A suboptimal calcium status has been associated with diabetes in observational studies, but evidence from trials is lacking 99% of calcium is the bone as hydroxyapatite. The remaining 1% is found mainly in plasma which exists in 3 major forms: approximately 50% is in the free or ionized form, which is the physiologically important fraction, 40% is bound to albumin, and the remaining 10% is in soluble complexes with anions such as bicarbonate, phosphate, and lactate. This study aims to determineif there is correlation between low ionized calcium and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In this prospective, cross sectional study, 40 diabetic and 45 nondiabetic patients are included with their ionized calcium checked at feu - nrmf Clinical Laboratory. Results of the study showed that there is lower ionized calcium in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients than nondiabetic patients (p value 0.66). However, ionized calcium is significantly lower in insulin-treated diabetics compared to those on oral antidiabetics (1.09+ 0.06 vs. 1.22+ 0.04; p value <0.0001). It was seen that ionized calcium is also decreased in patients with hypertension (P 0.02).

Research - Department of Medicine