Background: Diabetic nephropathy remains the most common cause of end stage renal disease. Connective tissue growth factor is an extracellular protein involved in the development of diabetic nephropathy.

Objective: To evaluate serum connective tissue growth factor level in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes and to assess the correlation with markers of diabetic nephropathy.

Material and methods: Fifty elderly type 2 diabetic patients with diabetic nephropathy and fifty age and sex-matched control were enrolled. All subjects underwent detailed history taking, clinical examination and anthropometric measurements assessment. Laboratory investigations included serum connective tissue growth factor, fasting blood glucose, post prandial blood glucose, glycated haemoglobin, lipid profile, C-reactive protein, serum creatinine, blood urea, urine analysis, urinary albumin to creatinine ratio and estimated glomerular filtration rate.

Results: The 50 patients were 35(70 %) females and 15 (30%) males with a mean age of 67.76± 3.04 years and disease duration were 11.3 ± 4.7 years. The mean serum CTGF in patients was 53.72 ± 21.22 ng/dl and in control was 22.28 ± 1.96 ng/dl (p < 0.001). Serum connective tissue growth factor significantly correlated with glycated haemoglobin, serum creatinine, urinary albumin to creatinine ratio and estimated glomerular filtration rate.

Conclusion: Serum connective tissue growth factor expression in the serum of patients with diabetic nephropathy was significantly higher than controls and was significantly correlated with markers of diabetic nephropathy.