Control to goal of cardiometabolic risk factors among Nigerians living with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular risk factors contribute to morbidity and mortality among diabetic patients. National and international guidelines on management of diabetes therefore emphasize control to goals of blood glucose, blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and obesity so as to minimize the development of complications and enhance the patients' quality of life. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the status of control to goals of cardiometabolic risk factors among the diabetic patients attending the Diabetes clinic of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A survey of 233 type 2 diabetic patients recruited from the Diabetes clinic of our hospital was carried out. Standard procedures as described in the WHO STEP instrument were used to determine the waist circumference, weight, height, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Fasting blood glucose and lipid profiles were also assessed. Therapeutic goals used to define risk or poor control were values adopted by expert groups such as American diabetes association (ADA), National cholesterol education program (NCEP), American association of clinical endocrinologist (AACE) and International diabetes federation (IDF). RESULTS: There were 98 males and 135 females with mean (SD) duration of diabetes mellitus (DM) of 6.7 (6.3) years. Suboptimal glycemic, blood pressure control and dyslipidemia were observed in 65.7%, 51.9%, 97.1% of the subjects respectively while 60.1% of the subjects were found to be overweight/obese. Comparing the mean indices of risk factors with the recommended therapeutic goals, status of control was optimal for HDL-cholesterol, waist circumference and triglycerides. All the other risk factors were suboptimal. CONCLUSION: Control to goals of cardiovascular risk factors is poor among the patients. There is the need to identify and tackle the possible contributing factors so as to reduce the morbidity and mortality in these patients.

Basal insulin resistance and secretion in Nigerians with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

AIM: The objective of this study was to estimate basal insulin resistance (IR) and insulin secretion (IS) in Nigerians with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: The homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) method was used to estimate basal IR and IS in 146 Nigerians with T2DM and in 33 controls at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, Nigeria. Correlations and multiple regression analysis between Box-Cox-transformed IR and log-transformed IS and anthropometric indices were carried out. RESULTS: IR and reduced IS were present, respectively, in 139 (95.5%) and 109 (74.7%) of the diabetic subjects and in 25 (75.8%) and 4 (12.1%) of the controls. In the diabetic subjects, age at diagnosis, duration of diabetes, waist circumference (WC), and body mass index (BMI) correlated significantly with IR (r = -0.2399, P = 0.0035; r = 0.1993, P = 0.0166; r = 0.2267, P = 0.0059; r = 0.2082, P = 0.0120; respectively), whereas duration of diabetes, WC, and BMI correlated significantly with IS (r = -0.2166, P = 0.0091; r = 0.3062, P = 0.0002; r = 0.2746, P = 0.0008; respectively). Age at diagnosis, WC, and duration of diabetes were significant predictors of IR (beta = -0.0161, P < 0.001; beta = 0.0121, P = 0.002; beta = 0.0138, P = 0.042; respectively), whereas duration of diabetes and WC significantly predicted IS (beta = -0.0159, P = 0.025; beta = 0.0155, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that both IR and reduced IS are major features of T2DM in Nigerians and that WC consistently correlated and predicted IR. WC measurement is simple and ideal in resource-poor settings for the detection of IR and abdominal obesity. The apparent rarity of coronary heart disease (CHD) in black Africans with T2DM despite a high prevalence of IR warrants further investigation.

Beta cell function and response to treatment in Nigerians with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

There are scant data from African populations on the association between beta-cell function and response to treatment with oral hypoglycaemic agents in Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Fasting plasma C-peptide (FCP) and glucagon-stimulated C-peptide (GSCP) levels were measured in 116 Nigerians with T2DM at a university teaching hospital. After 9 months of follow-up and treatment, they were categorized into three groups based on response to treatment: (A) good control but not on maximum sulphonylurea (SU) therapy, (B) inadequate control but not on maximum SU therapy and (C) on maximum SU therapy+/-insulin or biguanide. Logistic regression models were used to investigate how well C-peptide levels predicted the subjects belonging to Group C who are likely to require insulin. The mean FCP and mean GSCP levels of Group C were significantly lower than in the other groups (p=0.024; p= <0.001 respectively). A GSCP cut-off value of < or =1.3 ng/mL predicted membership of Group C with 85% sensitivity and 89% specificity while a cut-off of < or =1.8 ng/mL was associated with 91% sensitivity and 66% specificity. In resource-poor settings where inadequate treatment are common, estimation of GSCP may be useful in predicting treatment response and should be weighed against the cost of inadequate therapy with higher morbidity and mortality.