Association between neutrophilic granulocyte percentage and diabetes
mellitus in Cushing’s syndrome patients: a cross-sectional study
Abstract
Background: Glucose metabolism is frequently impaired in patients with
Cushing’s syndrome (CS), which is caused by chronic exposure to
glucocorticoid excess. Inflammation plays a central role in the
pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus (DM). The present study aimed to
investigate the potential associations of inflammatory blood cell
parameters, including white blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophils count,
neutrophilic granulocyte percentage (NEUT%), lymphocyte count (LYM),
lymphocyte proportion (LYM%) with diabetes mellitus in Cushing’s
syndrome patients. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was
performed in Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, China. A total 150
patients with Cushing’s syndrome were retrospectively screened from
2017-2019. The demographic, clinical data, and blood samples were
documented (lipids, adrenal, glucose, inflammatory blood cell
parameters). Statistical analyses were carried out by using SPSS
software package version 13.0. Results: The prevalence of diabetes
mellitus was 38.7% in Cushing’s syndrome. Patient with DM had higher
WBC, neutrophils, NEUT% levels than patients without DM (P <
0.05). As the NEUT% increased, there was a step-wise increase in
glucose and HbA1c level. Additionally, in the multivariate logistic
regression, NEUT% was an independent risk factor for the development of
DM, regardless of gender, age, BMI, triglyceride and 12MN cortisol level
(OR=2.542, 95%CI 1.337-4.835, P<0.001). Conclusions: In
conclusion, elevated NEUT% level was associated with diabetes in
patients with Cushing syndrome. The neutrophils granulocyte percentage
may be used as a new predictor for diabetes in Cushing’s syndrome
patients.