Impact of Anemia on the Determination of Glycated Haemoglobin by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography in Diabetic Patients

Introduction: Glycated haemoglobin is considered an objective element in monitoring glycaemic control in diabetic patients. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is the reference method for measuring HbA1c. However, even this method can be affected by certain conditions such as anemia. Purpose: To study the impact of anaemia on the measurement of glycated haemoglobin levels by HPLC in diabetic patients. Methodology: We conducted a prospective, descriptive and comprehensive study from November 2022 to April 2023, on 06 months at the Mali Hospital, measuring glycated haemoglobin, blood glucose and haematological parameters (CBC). Results: We included 71 diabetic patients, 42.3% were men and 57.7% women. In our study population, 33.8% were anaemic, among them 16.9% were women and 16.9% men. The age group [50-80] years constituted the majority (n = 14) of anaemic patients. The most common type of anaemia in our diabetic patients was normocytic anaemia. HbA1c >7% was found in 91.6% (n=22) of our anaemic patients. The mean haemoglobin level was not statistically significantly different from the HbA1c level (P = 0.0595). There was a statistically significant difference between MCHC and HbA1c (P = 0.04). To our knowledge, we did not observe any significant impact of anaemia on the measurement of HbA1c by the HPLC method. Conclusion: Our study showed a high frequency of normocytic anaemia in diabetic patients. We also noted that the reliability of HPLC in measuring HbA1c was not affected by a minor decrease in total haemoglobin levels.