Predictors of intra-hospital mortality in patients with diabetic foot ulcers in Nigeria: data from the MEDFUN study.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) are associated with high morbidity and mortality globally. Mortality in patients hospitalized for DFU in Nigeria is unacceptably high. This study was undertaken to determine factors that predict mortality in patients hospitalized for DFU in Nigeria. METHODS: The current study was part of Multi-centre Evaluation of Diabetic Foot Ulcer in Nigeria (MEDFUN), an observational study conducted in six tertiary healthcare institutions across the 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Consecutive type 1 or 2 diabetic patients hospitalized for DFU who consented to participate were recruited and subjected to relevant clinical, biochemical, and radiological assessments and multidisciplinary care until discharge or death. Data for type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients were expunged from current mortality analysis due to their small number. RESULTS: Three hundred and twenty-three type 2 DM subjects with mean age and mean duration of DM of 57.2 ± 11.4 years and 8.7 ± 5.8 years respectively participated in this study. The median duration of ulcers was 39 days with a range of 28 to 54 days and the majority (79.9%) presented with advanced ulcers of at least Wagner grade 3. Mortality of 21.4% was recorded in the study, with the highest mortality observed among subjects with Wagner grade 5. Variables significantly associated with mortality with their respective p values were DM duration more than 120 months (p 0.005), ulcer duration > 1 month (p 0.020), ulcer severity of Wagner grade 3 and above (p 0.001), peripheral arterial disease (p 0.005), proteinuria (p < 0.001), positive blood cultures (p < 0.001), low HDL (p < 0.001), shock at presentation (p < 0.001), cardiac failure (p 0.027), and renal impairment (p < 0.001). On Multivariate regression analysis, presence of bacteraemia (OR 5.053; 95% CI 2.572-9.428) and renal impairment (OR 2.838; 95% CI 1.349-5.971) were significantly predictive of mortality independent of other variables. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed high intra-hospital mortality among patients with DFU, with the majority of deaths occurring among those with advanced ulcers, bacteraemia, cardiac failure, and renal impairment. Prompt attention to these factors might help improve survival from DFU in Nigeria.

Latent Autoimmune Diabetes Mellitus in Adults (LADA) and it's characteristics in a subset of Nigerians initially managed for type 2 diabetes.

INTRODUCTION: Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is an entity characterized by the presence of GAD autoantibodies. LADA is largely understudied and underreported amongst Nigerians with Diabetes Mellitus (DM). We undertook to document the Prevalence, clinical and biochemical characteristics of LADA in a subset of Nigerians who hitherto had been treated for type 2 DM. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 235 patients being managed for type 2 DM. The diagnosis of LADA was made in the presence of Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase autoantibody (GADA) positivity in the study subjects. Thereafter persons with LADA were compared with those without LADA. Clinical parameters such as demographic data, history of diabetes mellitus (DM) and its complications were obtained, biochemical parameters including Fasting blood glucose (FBG), C-peptide, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and lipid parameters were compared in both groups of Study subject. Test statistics used were Student t- test and χ 2. SPSS was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Thirty three out of 235 of the Study subjects were GADA positive, giving a prevalence of 14%. The mean age (SD) of the subjects with LADA is 53.24(7.22) with an age range of 30-63 years. Majority (48%) of LADA subjects were in the 50-59 age category. There was no significant difference in the proportion of males and females with LADA (p = 0.3). 37% of patients with LADA were on insulin for glycaemic control. Three (3) LADA subjects had history/clinical evidence of autoimmune thyroid disease. 66% of LADA were in the overweight/obese category. LADA subjects had significant poor long term glycaemic control compared with anti-GAD negative subjects (p = 0.026). About half of LADA subjects were insulinopaenic. LADA subjects had lower levels of total cholesterol than GADA-ve subjects (p = 0.03). A higher proportion of LADA had evidence of microvascular complications of DM compared with antiGAD negative individuals. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of LADA should be entertained in overweight/obese persons from the fourth decade of life presenting with DM. Pharmacotherapy with insulin is a potential means of managing hyperglycaemia in this group of patients especially since a significant proportion are insulinopaenic. The Prevalence of LADA in our patients is comparable to what obtains in Ghanaian and Caucasian populations.