Background: Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is a glycated form of haemoglobin reflects average plasma glucose over the previous 8 to 12 weeks. HbA1c can be affected by multiple non-glycaemic parameters. Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is one among them which is the most common type of anaemia in India. However, reports on the effects of iron deficiency anaemia on HbA1c levels are inconsistent. Hence we conducted a study to find out the influence of iron deficiency anaemia over HbA1c levels.  Methods: 120 patients confirmed to have iron deficiency anaemia were enrolled in this study. HbA1c levels were measured at baseline and 3 months after treatment, and these values were compared with those in the control population.Results: The mean baseline HbA1c level in anaemic patients (4.62%) was significantly lower than that in the control group (5.45%, P<0.001). A significant increase was observed in the patients HbA1c levels at 3 months after treatment (5.82%, P<0.001). There was a significant correlation observed between haemoglobin and HbA1c level (Coefficient of correlation=0.26, P<0.01) in the study group before correction.Conclusions: In contrast to the observations of previous studies, ours showed that HbA1c levels increased with treatment of iron deficiency anaemia. This could be attributable to nutritional deficiency, racial-ethnic variations and/or certain unknown variables. Further studies are warranted.

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Background: Higher cardiovascular morbidity found to be more in early stages of chronic kidney disease patients. Present study was done to study the prevalence of cardiac valvular calcification correlated with serum phosphate levels in chronic kidney disease.Methods: A total of 153 (78 chronic kidney disease patients, 75 controls with age and sex matched) coming to ESIC Hospital, Chennai were utilized to conduct the present study. Patients of stages 3 to 5 with matched controls of age and sex were considered for this study. Cases were classified in to different stages of chronic kidney disease based on estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate which was calculated using Cockcroft-Gault equation using age, body weight, and serum creatinine. The blood samples of patients belonging to both the groups were tested for serum creatinine and serum phosphate. The Echocardiogram was done for the patient with chronic kidney disease to assess cardiac valvular calcification.Results: 51% of the subjects in the study group were detected as having chronic kidney disease in ultrasonogram. 20% of the patients in the study group were having coronary artery disease compared to 4% in the control group. Mean serum phosphate levels between subjects with Valvular calcification in chronic kidney disease and without calcification was statistically significant among the study group was noted in the present study.Conclusions: Elevated levels of serum phosphate correlated with cardiac valvular calcification showed significant role in chronic kidney disease.

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Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a systemic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia either due to insulin resistance or insulin deficiency. This can lead to many serious life-threatening complications if not managed properly by regular monitoring of glycemic status. Prevalence of fear of needles in the society make people non-compliant to regular monitoring. Thus, there is a need for a non-invasive method for determining the glycemic status of the individual. Salivary Glucose has the potential to be one such tool. This study aimed to find whether a correlation between fasting blood glucose levels and fasting salivary glucose levels could be established in diabetic and non-diabetic individuals. 50 patients with DM and 50 patients without DM were studied. 5 ml of venous blood and 5 ml of unstimulated saliva after overnight fasting were collected from each participant and processed using standardized enzymatic methods. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. There was a strong and very significant positive correlation (r=0.800, p=0.001) between fasting salivary glucose levels and fasting blood glucose levels in patients with DM whereas the correlation was weak and insignificant in patients without DM (r=0.111, p=0.441). The cut off value for diagnosing DM was found to be ˃ 2.2mg/dl with 100% specificity and 100% sensitivity.