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Abstract
Background:
There may be significant
relationships between fasting
plasma glucose (FPG) and severity
of inflammations.
Method:
All cases with digital clubbing
were included.
Results:
The study included 104 cases
with clubbing detected among
2.428 cases (1.044 males).
So clubbing was higher in
males (8.1% versus 1.3%, p<0.001).
Mean age of clubbing cases
was 49.2 years, and there
was a male predominance (81.7%),
again. Parallel to the male
predominance, there were higher
prevalences of smoking (69.2%
versus 41.6%, p<0.001),
chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD) (27.8% versus
10.8%, p<0.001), and coronary
heart disease (CHD) and/or
peripheric artery disease
(PAD) (7.6% versus 0.0%, p<0.01)
in the clubbing cases. Whereas
the body weight, body mass
index (BMI), and FPG were
lower in the clubbing cases
but the differences were nonsignificant
probably due to the small
sample size. But diabetes
mellitus (DM) (12.5% versus
21.6%, p<0.05) and systolic
blood pressure (BP) (127.6
versus 136.9 mmHg, p= 0.011)
were lower in the clubbing
cases, significantly.
Conclusion:
There are significant
relationships between smoking,
digital clubbing, COPD, CHD,
and PAD probably due to strong
atherosclerotic effects of
smoking. Similarly, the body
weight, BMI, FPG, systolic
BP, and DM are inversely related
with the clubbing probably
due to the severe inflammatory
effects of smoking on the
vascular endothelium, again.
FPG may behave as a positive
acute phase reactant (APR)
in mild inflammatory disorders
such as irritable bowel syndrome
but as a negative APR in moderate
and severe inflammatory disorders
such as smoking, digital clubbing,
and sickle cell diseases.
Key
words: Fasting plasma
glucose, diabetes mellitus,
irritable bowel syndrome,
smoking, digital clubbing,
sickle cell diseases, atherosclerosis
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