Professor UT Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, United States
Prolactin plays a role in pancreatic ß-cell proliferation, insulin secretion, and in immunity. It is not known if those biological activities are related to the degree of hyperprolactinaemia. This study examined the association between circulating prolactin levels and degree of diabetes control as assessed by glycated haemoglobin (A1c).
Methods: Prolactin and associated A1c levels reported over 12 months period were obtained from 276 patients following review of patients’ medical chart. There were no specific selection criteria except for availability of combined A1c and prolactin results during the study period. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software.
Results: A total of 276 prolactin and associated A1c results were obtained from non-diabetic patients (n=152), ages ranged from 14 to 84 (median 35 years) and those diagnosed with type II diabetes mellitus (n=124) ages ranged from 12 to 75 (median 39 years). Among all study patients, prolactin levels ranged from 1.0 to 1152 ng/mL (median 12.8) and A1c ranged from 4.1 to 14.5 (median 12.8 %). Among non-diabetic patients with A1c levels < 5.7%, prolactin levels ranged from 1.0 to 328.1 (median 13.3 ng/mL), among patients with A1c levels between 5.7 and 6.5 %, prolactin levels ranged from 1.0 to 1152 (median 11.9 ng/mL), in patients with A1c between 6.6 and 9.0 %, prolactin levels ranged from 1.1 to 154.4 (median 11.9 ng/mL), whereas among patients with A1c > 9.0%, prolactin levels ranged from 2.7 to 41.2 (median 14.6 ng/mL). There was no significant (p>0.16) correlation between A1c and prolactin levels (r ranged from 0.01 to 0.25) among all study patients.
Conclusion: Although higher prolactin levels were observed among patients with strict glycaemic control at risk of hypoglycaemia (A1c 5.7 – 6.4%) compared with other patients groups, there was no significant correlation between degree of glycaemic control and prolactin levels. Limitations of this study include the small number of patients from a single site. Additional studies are required including inclusion of multiple study sites and inclusion of larger patient population as well as correlation of prolactin levels with glucose levels per se.
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