Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Exp Med. May 20, 2015; 5(2): 110-119
Published online May 20, 2015. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v5.i2.110
Asymmetric dimethylarginine, a biomarker of cardiovascular complications in diabetes mellitus
Hiroyuki Konya, Masayuki Miuchi, Kahori Satani, Satoshi Matsutani, Yuzo Yano, Taku Tsunoda, Takashi Ikawa, Toshihiro Matsuo, Fumihiro Ochi, Yoshiki Kusunoki, Masaru Tokuda, Tomoyuki Katsuno, Tomoya Hamaguchi, Jun-ichiro Miyagawa, Mitsuyoshi Namba
Hiroyuki Konya, Satoshi Matsutani, Yuzo Yano, Department of Internal Medicine, Ashiya Municipal Hospital, Ashiya, Hyogo 659-8502, Japan
Masayuki Miuchi, Kahori Satani, Taku Tsunoda, Takashi Ikawa, Toshihiro Matsuo, Fumihiro Ochi, Yoshiki Kusunoki, Masaru Tokuda, Jun-ichiro Miyagawa, Mitsuyoshi Namba, Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 663-8501, Japan
Tomoyuki Katsuno, Division of Innovative Diabetes Treatment, Department of Internal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 663-8501, Japan
Tomoya Hamaguchi, Center of Diabetes Therapy, Department of Internal Medicine, Itami City Hospital, Itami, Hyogo 664-8540, Japan
Author contributions: Konya H and Namba M were involved in collecting the required publications and editing the manuscript; Konya H wrote the manuscript; all authors organized the structure of the review.
Conflict-of-interest: We have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hiroyuki Konya, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine, Ashiya Municipal Hospital, 39-1, Asahigaoka-cho, Ashiya, Hyogo 659-8502, Japan. h-dyer@mvi.biglobe.ne.jp
Telephone: +81-797-312156 Fax: +81-797-228822
Received: October 4, 2014
Peer-review started: October 5, 2014
First decision: December 12, 2014
Revised: January 28, 2015
Accepted: February 4, 2015
Article in press: February 9, 2015
Published online: May 20, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) is an emerging independent biomarker for prospective cardiovascular (CV) complications. In our study, the results show that the cases with a high level of ADMA could have diabetes mellitus CV (DMCV) complications in the future within five years. Furthermore, not only ADMA but also urinary albumin was associated with DMCV complications in the multiple regression analyses. The clinical acceptation of this parameter will rely on the availability of therapies to immediately reduce ADMA such as incretin-based drugs, which could support the part of ADMA as an etiologic risk factor.