Glucose and lactate in vitreous humor compared with the determination of fructosamine for the postmortem diagnosis of diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic illness responsible for a great nu mber of deaths. In postmortem diagnosis, because of the difficulty involved in interpreting blood glucose. levels and relatively nonspecific pathologi c features, biochemical markers in vitreous humor are useful. The aim of th is study was to compare the results obtained for the combined determination of lactate and glucose with fructosamine levels recorded in the vitreous h umor of two diagnostic groups (one diabetic and the other nondiabetic). The authors intended to ascertain the capacity of different markers measured i n vitreous humor to diagnose diabetes mellitus. Fifty-one cadavers (mean ag e, 58.7 years; standard deviation, 17.09) were studied. The mean postmortem interval was 16.4 hours (standard deviation, 9.05). Cases were assigned to two diagnostic groups according to whether they were previously diagnosed as either diabetic or nondiabetic. Statistically significant differences fo r glucose, fructosamine, and the sum values of glucose and lactate were fou nd between the two diagnostic groups. The highest levels were obtained in t he group of cases with a previous diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. After the comparison of receiver operating characteristic curves, the sum values of glucose and lactate in vitreous humor is a better predictor of antemortem d iabetes mellitus than the fructosamine.