Evaluation of glycated albumin values measured with an enzymatic method in diabetic patients on hemodialysis

Abstract

Reagents have recently been developed for the measurement of glycated albumin (GA) based on an enzymatic method. For diabetic patients not on hemodialysis, a high correlation has been demonstrated between the GA values obtained with the enzymatic method and the values obtained with the traditional HPLC method, indicating that the enzymatic method can be substituted for the HPLC method.
We examined whether this enzymatic method could also replace the traditional HPLC method for diabetic patients on hemodialysis. In 165 diabetic patients on hemodialysis, the values obtained by the enzymatic method showed a good correlation with those values generated by the HPLC method (r=0.987). The enzymatic method for GA was also shown to be useful in patients with hypoproteinemia (TP<6.0g/dL) and patients with hypoalbuminemia (Alb<3.5g/dL) as well as patients with severe azotemia.