Sputum Glucose and Glycemic Control in Cystic Fibrosis-Related Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study

Cystic fibrosis-related diabetes affects up to half of cystic fibrosis patients and is associated with increased mortality and more frequent pulmonary exacerbations. However, it is unclear to what degree good glycemic control might mitigate these risks and clinical outcomes have not previously been studied in relation to glucose from the lower airways, the site of infection and CF disease progression. We initially hypothesized that diabetic cystic fibrosis patients with glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1c) > 6.5% have worse pulmonary function, longer and more frequent exacerbations and also higher sputum glucose levels than patients with HbA_1c ≤ 6.5% or cystic fibrosis patients without diabetes. To test this, we analyzed spontaneously expectorated sputum samples from 88 cystic fibrosis patients. The median sputum glucose concentration was 0.70 mM (mean, 4.75 mM; range, 0-64.6 mM). Sputum glucose was not correlated with age, sex, body mass index, diabetes diagnosis, glycemic control, exacerbation frequency or length, or pulmonary function. Surprisingly, sputum glucose was highest in subjects with normal glucose tolerance, suggesting the dynamics of glycemic control, sputum glucose and pulmonary infections are more complex than previously thought. Two-year mean HbA_1c was positively correlated with the length of exacerbation admission (p < 0.01), and negatively correlated with measures of pulmonary function (p < 0.01). While total number of hospitalizations for exacerbations were not significantly different, subjects with an HbA_1c > 6.5% were hospitalized on average 6 days longer than those with HbA_1c ≤ 6.5% (p < 0.01). Current clinical care guidelines for cystic fibrosis-related diabetes target HbA_1c ≤ 7% to limit long-term microvascular damage, but more stringent glycemic control (HbA_1c ≤ 6.5%) may further reduce the short-term pulmonary complications.