GLYCAEMIC CONTROL OF NIGERIAN TYPE II DIABETIC PATIENTS: THE EFFECTS ON SOME CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS

Abstract

The aim of this project was to determine the effect of glycaemic control on some cardiovascular risk factors in Nigerian type II Diabetic patients.
One hundred and sixty diabetic patients were randomly selected from among those attending the general outpatient department of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital. Seventy age and sex matched controls were also selected from among staff and patients that were not diabetic.
The blood pressure of the subjects as well as the weight and height (from which BMI was calculated), fasting blood glucose, glycosylated haemoglobin, lipid profile: Total cholesterol (TC), Triglycerides (Tg), Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), were estimated in the serum of patients and controls. The student t-test was used to compare means of results where appropriate, Pearson’ correlation analysis was used to examined relationships between variables.
The mean fasting plasma glucose of patients was 7.6±3.6mmo/L and that of control was 4.2±0.5mmo/L. Using fasting plasma glucose level, 68 (42.5%) patients had good glycaemic control(i.e. FPG ≤ 6.0mmol/L) . 18 (11.25%) patients had acceptable glycaemic control (i.e. FPG = 6.1-6.9mmol/L ) while remaining 74 patients (46.25%) had poor glycaemic control(i.e. FPG ≥ 7.0mmol/L) .
The mean body mass index (BMI) for the diabetic patients (26.5±4.5kg/m2) was statistically higher than that of control (22.6±2.7kg/m2) with p-value of 0.000 and r = 0.533 – a strong positive correlation with level of glycaemia.
The results showed that 116 (72.5%) of our diabetics were hypertensive.

The mean TC, Tg and LDL-C were higher in diabetic patients (6.5±2.3, 1.5±0.6 and 4.8±2.1 respectively) than in controls (3.6±0.5, 0.6±0.1 and 2.3±0.4 respectively) and the differences were statistically significant for the three (p-value of 0.000). There was no difference in the level of HDL-C between the diabetic patients and control subjects (p-value of 0.509). There is statistical significant difference in coronary heart disease risk ratio between diabetics (0.17±0.06) and controls (0.29±0.03), also between good glycaemic control (0.24±0.05) and those of poor glycaemic control (0.13±0.03) both having p-value of 0.000 and a strong and significant negative correlation with level of glycaemia (FGP) at r of – 0.595 and p-value of 0.000.
We conclude in this research that hypertension with dyslipidaemia is prevalent among our diabetics and BMI and dyslipidaemia are statistically related to the level of glycaemic control.

GLYCAEMIC CONTROL OF NIGERIAN TYPE II DIABETIC PATIENTS: THE EFFECTS ON SOME CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS