A Comparative Study of Lead and Cadmium Concentrations in Serum Samples of Diabetic Patients in Al-Najaf Governorate

This study aimed to investigate the concentration of Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in different serum samples of diabetic patients and compared them with healthy subjects.

This pilot study was conducted in the Al-Hira area, Najaf governorate, Iraq from June 2021 to January 2022. It included 25 diabetic patients (12 males and 13 females) and 15 healthy non-diabetic subjects (7 males and 8 females) whose ages ranged between 30-80 years. The diabetic patients with an average age of 52.52 years, have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Healthy people have an average age of 53 years. The blood samples were taken after fasting one night and centrifuged after acid digestion to obtain serum which was stored for later use. Lead and Cadmium measurements were done using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer, SHIMADZU model AA-7000 atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Japan), which was calibrated. By SPSS 20, data were analyzed using the independent t-test and Pearson Correlation.

The Cd concentration in diabetic patients was higher than the control group with a high statistical significance (p<0.0001), this was true for the concentration of Cd in diabetic male and female patients which was significantly higher (p<0.001) than in male and female of the control group. While the Pb concentration is significantly lower in the diabetic group as compared to the healthy group but it was insignificantly (p>0.05) change in diabetic males and females as compared to healthy male and female persons. The Cd concentration was significantly higher in both type1 and type2 diabetic patients while the concentration of Pb insignificantly changed in those patients.

The Cd concentration is low in type1 and type2 diabetic patients of both gender, while the concentration of Pb is lower in diabetic patients than in healthy individuals.