Serum anticardiolipin antibody levels in patients with diabetic foot ulcers

Abstract

Purpose: To detect the possible relationship between serum anticardiolipin antibody(ACL) levels and diabetic foot ulcers; Methods: Twenty patients with diabetic foot ulcers, 16 diabetics without foot ulcers, 20 patients with SLE and 26 healthy subjects were included in this study. Serum IgG ACL and IgM ACL levels were measured by ELISA method. Results: Mean serum IgM ACL levels were 9± 6.3 U/ml in patients with diabetic ulcer, 6.7± 3 U/ml in patients without diabetic ulcers, 30.6± 28.2 U/ml in patients with SLE and 9.1± 4.4 U/ml in healthy group. Serum IgG ACL levels of these subjects in the same order were 10.3± 6.7, 7.6 ± 3.9, 32.4 ± 25.3, 9.9 ± 5.1 U/ml. Serum IgM and IgG type ACL levels of patients with diabetic ulcers were statistically not different from those of diabetic patients without ulcers and healthy control group, while were lower than those of the SLE group (for all of the groups p=0.00). Conclusion: We concluded that anticardiolipin antibodies do not have an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetic foot ulcers.