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. 2020 Mar;194(1):48-57.
doi: 10.1007/s12011-019-01747-x. Epub 2019 May 28.

Cluster and Factor Analysis of Elements in Serum and Urine of Diabetic Patients with Peripheral Neuropathy and Healthy People

Wenjia Guo  1 , Qi Zhou  2 , Yanan Jia  1 , Jiancheng Xu  3
Affiliations

Cluster and Factor Analysis of Elements in Serum and Urine of Diabetic Patients with Peripheral Neuropathy and Healthy People

Wenjia Guo et al. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2020 Mar.

Abstract

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a common complication of diabetes mellitus, presented as a major teratogenic cause worldwide. This study discussed alternation and correlation of magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), and selenium (Se) among DPN patients and healthy people using multivariate statistical analysis. Fifty patients with DPN were recruited from endocrinology department, First Hospital of Jilin University between January 2010 and October 2011 and also 50 healthy subjects were enrolled at the same time. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to assay elements in serum and urine. Cluster analysis was used to clarify alternation of elements' homogeneity. Factor analysis was performed to evaluate the most informative kinds of elements. Mg, Ca, Zn, and Cr in DPN patients were significantly lower in serum whereas significantly higher in urine. Elements were clustered into 4 or 5 clusters based on internal association using between-groups linkage algorithm. Serum Cr, Se, and Fe were grouped, and Mg related to Ca more closely in both serum and urine in DPN. Factor analysis revealed discrepancies of elements' contribution. Cr, Se, and Fe appeared to be the most crucial factors contributing to DPN. Mg, Ca, Zn, and Cu were more influential, whereas Cr became less potent to disease. Contributed value of elements could be determined and specified using loadings in scree plot. Future studies and delicate statistical models should be applied.

Keywords: Cluster analysis; Diabetic peripheral neuropathy; Elements; Factor analysis; Multivariate analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Dendrogram from cluster analysis of trace elements in serum of control (a) and DPN group (b) showing their division into four to five clusters at 10 and the same as those in the urine of control (c) and DPN group (d), respectively. U, Urinary
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Eigenvalues of the correlation matrix. The first three factors representing percentage of information in serum of control (a) and DPN group (b), the same as those in the urine of control (c) and DPN group (d), respectively
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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