Serum cystatin C as an early marker of nephropathy among type 2 diabetics: A meta-analysis.

AIM: The varying views as to the usefulness of serum cystatin C (CysC) as an early marker of diabetic nephropathy (DN) prompted us to investigate existing literature to determine whether serum CysC can be used as an early marker of DN using a meta-analysis approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve studies written in English were retrieved from PubMed using various key search terms. Data were extracted from the included studies by two of the authors and was subjected to statistical analysis using Review Manager 5.3 and Meta-Essentials. Levels of serum CysC were compared between the study groups using the standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Overall outcomes indicate that serum CysC levels are higher among those with microalbuminuria (MI) and macroalbuminuria (MA) than those in the control group (CN) and those with normoalbuminuria (NO). However, these findings were heterogeneous, which warranted an investigation using the Galbraith plot. Heterogeneity was either reduced or lost in the post-outlier outcomes indicating combinability of the studies. CONCLUSION: Serum CysC is shown to be a superior biomarker in the early diagnosis of DN. However, further studies are still needed to verify our claims.

Estimation of salivary glucose, amylase, calcium, and phosphorus among non-diabetics and diabetics: Potential identification of non-invasive diagnostic markers.

AIMS: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) continues to burden millions of people worldwide. Early detection and effective diagnosis of DM are essential key strategies to reduce the impeding incidence of the disease and its complications. Thus, this study determined the potential utility of salivary glucose, amylase, calcium, and phosphorus as non-invasive diagnostic markers of DM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 80 participants were recruited and divided into two groups (non-diabetics and diabetics). Fasting blood samples and unstimulated saliva samples were collected and tested for glucose, amylase, calcium, and phosphorus. RESULTS: Mann-Whitney U test shows that salivary glucose and salivary amylase were significantly higher among diabetics than non-diabetics. In addition to this, the receiver operations characteristics (ROC) curve showed that salivary glucose (AUC = 0.811, p < 0.001) and amylase (AUC = 0.649, p = 0.03) has significant association with DM. CONCLUSION: Overall, only salivary glucose and amylase showed good potential in discriminating patients with diabetes from those without.