Hyperglycaemia-induced erythrocyte sedimentation rate changes following oral glucose tolerance test

Abstract

Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate is one of the commonest tests routinely requested in a clinical laboratory to determine inflammatory status. The  test result can be affected by many variables including hyperglycaemia, which tends to cause a false increase. Hyperglycaemic effect on ESR testing  has not been well studied in our environment especially since hyperglycaemia states including diabetes mellitus are common medical conditions in  our hospitals. We aimed to evaluate the changes in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) following induced hyperglycaemia during oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). We therefore determined plasma glucose level and erythrocytes sedimentation rates (ESRs) of pre-diabetics on OGTT and volunteer control subjects. This experimental prospective study was carried out on 168 study participants out of which 112 (66.7%) were pre-diabetic subjects and 56 (33.3%) were apparently healthy volunteers. Plasma glucose determination was done using glucose oxidase-peroxidase method and  ESR test was carried out using the modified Westergreen method. The fasting and 2 hours postprandial (PP) plasma glucose levels were significantly higher among test subjects compared to control subjects (p < 0.05). The fasting, 1 hour and 2 post-oral glucose intake ESR of pre-diabetics were significantly (p<0.05) higher among test subjects compared to the control group. These were statistically significant (p<0.05) between pre-diabetic and control subjects. There was no strong relationship established (r-0.01), (p ˃ 0.05) between acute oral glucose intake during OGTT  and ESR in pre-diabetic subjects. Conclusively, acute oral glucose intake does not affect erythrocytes sedimentation rate in pre-diabetic subjects on OGTT.

Keywords:  Glucose, Erythrocyte, Sedimentation Rate, Pre-Diabetes, Kano