Serum Albumin Was Negatively Associated With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy in Chinese Population: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Studies that investigated the association between serum albumin and the risk of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) have reported inconsistent results. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between serum albumin and DPN in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: Serum albumin levels were measured in 1465 patients with T2DM aged 16–89 years. The relationships between serum albumin and the prevalence of DPN and other parameters were analyzed. Results: Patients in the highest quartile of serum albumin had lower prevalence of DPN compared with subjects in the lowest quartile (P <0.01). Serum albumin was positively associated with DBP, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, uric acid, and negatively with glycated hemoglobin A1c, γ-glutamyltransferase, cystatin C, serum creatinine, albumin- to-creatinine ratio, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, vibration perception thresholds (VPT), and prevalence of DPN after adjustments for age, gender, body mass index, and diabetic duration ( P<0.01 or P<0.05). There was an 50.1% decreased risk of DPN (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.404-0.544; P <0.01) per 1 SD increase of serum and 62.7% decreased risk of DPN in quartile 4 of serum albumin versus quartiles 1, 2, and 3 (95% CI 0.195-0.714; P=0.003) after multivariate adjustment. Serum albumin could predict DPN with 65.88% sensitivity and 66.7% specificity for the best cutoff value of 39.95 g/L. Conclusions: These findings suggest that lower serum albumin might be associated with the presence of DPN via increased oxidative stress, inflammation, and vasculopathy. Further larger and prospective studies are needed to confirm our findings.