COMPARISON OF HbA1c LEVEL BETWEEN IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIC NON-DIABETIC & NON ANEMIC NON-DIABETIC SUBJECTS

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the mean HbA1c levels in non-diabetic iron deficiency anaemic patients & non anaemic non diabetic subjects & to compare the HbA1c in both the groups. Material & methods: It was a hospital based case control analytical type observational study. The case group includes 100 non diabetic iron deficient anemic patients & the control group includes 100 non diabetic non anemic subjects admitted in hospital .The mean HbA1c level was calculated in both the groups & compared & its correlation with various variable like serum ferritin level, serum iron level serum transferrin saturation, was calculated. The data were analysed by chi-square test & T-test & Carl-Pearson correlation coefficient with SPSS version 16 for application. Results: The mean HbA1c level in iron deficient patients (5.97±0.69%) was significantly higher than in healthy persons (5.24±0.49%). Patients having iron deficiency also had a significantly higher frequency (76/100 cases) of higherHbA1c (>5.5%) compared to healthy persons (32/100 persons). In control group mean HbA1c level in patients having HbA1c level > 5.5 was 5.82 + 0.22 while that in case group was 6.27+ 0.46 with p-value < 0.001 which is statistically highly significant. There was no statistically significant difference in mean fasting plasma sugar & post prandial plasma sugar in case & control group. The serum iron , serum ferritin & serum transferrin saturation were negatively correlated with HbA1C level in both the groups but only in case group the negative correlation between serum iron & HbA1c level ,& negative correlation between serum ferritin & HbA1c level were more strong & statistically significant .(p value<0.05) Conclusion: The mean HbA1c level is shifted to higher range in iron deficient anaemic non diabetic patients in comparison to non-anaemic non diabetic patients independent of blood sugar level. So HbA1c level should be carefully interpreted in presence iron deficiency anaemia. HbA1c may increase independent of plasma sugar level. Further study is required to explore cause –effect relationship between iron deficiency anaemia & HbA1c.