Background and Aims Diabetes mellitus (DM) represents a worldwide health problem and a major epidemic during the past decades. The exact number of people with diabetes in Romania is unknown. The aim of this paper was to determine the number of subjects registered with diabetes in Romania. Material and Method: The Romanian Society of Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases (RSDNMD) asked the representatives in charge with DM in each county about the total number of subjects registered with DM, the number of subjects with newly diagnosed DM in 2011 and their treatment (insulin or oral drugs). Results: There are 803,489 persons registered with DM, with a national prevalence of 4.21%. The lowest prevalence was observed in Ilfov (0.9%) and the highest prevalence (7.83%) in Bucharest. A total of 125,574 diabetics (15.62%) are treated only with insulin while 81,910 (10.19%) with combined insulin and oral medication. In 2011 have been registered 68.294 new cases of diabetes, with an incidence of 358.63/100,000 persons. The lowest incidence was 91.15 in Giurgiu county and the highest incidence was 718.94 in Arad county. Conclusions: There are large and unexplained differences between counties for both diabetes prevalence and incidence. Consequently, RSDNMD decided to start a national epidemiological study (PREDATORR) that will be carried out in 2013.

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Diabetes mellitus represents a major public health problem in the world and glycemic control is very important in subjects with diabetes. Glycation of many proteins is increased in subjects with diabetes compared with persons without diabetes. Glycated albumin (GA) has emerged as a possible glycation index for intermediate-term diabetescontrol. There is evidence that GA can be considered a better parameter than glycated haemoglobin in many conditions including pregnancy, chronic kidney disease, liver diseases and anemia. Several reports indicate that GA plays a role in the pathogeny of diabetes complications, mainly in diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy. There are several limitations for using GA including the lack of standardization in the laboratories. Several studies are needed in order to understand the place of GA in the pathogeny of diabetes complications and the role in assessing the metabolic control.