Association between sex, glycaemic status, and serum antithyroglobulin antibodies in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Salah Eldin Omar Hussein, Hussam Ali Osman, Amged Gaffer Mostafa, Mohamed Abdelfatah, Rasha Babiker, Awadh S Alsubhi, Abdulrahman Algarni, Elryah I Ali, Ezeldine K Abdalhabib, Tagwa Yousif Elsayed Yousif, Elyasa Elfaki, Rabab H Elshaikh, Ayman Hussien Alfeel

Abstract. Background & aim. The relationship between serum antithyroglobulin (ATG) antibody levels, glycaemic status, and sex in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus is an area of growing interest in endocrinology. This study aimed to measure several biomarkers in both males and female groups, specifically fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and ATG antibody level. Materials & methods. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 201 males and females were recruited to participate. The assays were performed on Roche COBAS C311, COBAS e 411/601, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and Beckman Coulter (DXC 700 AU) analysers. The results were analysed by using SPSS version 26. Results. This study included 201 males and female patients with type II diabetes, with ages ranging from 21 to 73 years. The results revealed significant differences in FBG, HbA1c, and ATG levels between the males and females compared to the glycaemic status. From these results, significant differences were observed in the mean between the glycaemic status, sex, and thyroid markers (p-value: 0.029). Males and females with poor glycaemic status had 2.7-fold higher odds of elevated ATG antibody levels compared to those with good glycaemic status (odds ratio = 2.7). The scatterplot showed a weak positive correlation between HbA1c and ATG observed by increased HbA1c levels associated with higher ATG levels (R² value = 0.195), also the boxplot demonstrated the relationship between the means of glycaemic status, sex, and ATG levels, showed that females with poor glycaemic status was highest risk for elevated ATG antibodies. Conclusion. A significant positive correlation was observed between ATG antibody and serum HbA1c in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, indicating a significant association between glycaemic status and sex, and suggesting potential sex-based differences in glycaemic control.