Random blood glucose may be used to assess long-term glycaemic control among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a rural African clinical setting.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of random blood glucose (RBG) on good glycaemic control among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) in a rural African setting. METHODS: Cross-sectional study at St. Francis' Hospital in eastern Zambia. RBG and HbA1c were measured during one clinical review only. Other information obtained was age, sex, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, urine albumin-creatinine ratio, duration since diagnosis and medication. RESULTS: One hundred and one patients with DM (type 1 DM = 23, type 2 DM = 78) were included. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient revealed a significant correlation between RBG and HbA1c among the patients with type 2 DM (r = 0.73, P < 0.001) but not patients with type 1 DM (r = 0.17, P = 0.44). Furthermore, in a multivariate linear regression model (R(2) = 0.71) RBG (per mmol/l increment) (B = 0.28, 95% CI:0.24-0.32, P < 0.001) was significantly associated with HbA1c among the patients with type 2 DM. Based on ROC analysis (AUC = 0.80, SE = 0.05), RBG ≤7.5 mmol/l was determined as the optimal cut-off value for good glycaemic control (HbA1c <7.0% [53 mmol/mol]) among patients with type 2 DM (sensitivity = 76.7%; specificity = 70.8%; positive predictive value = 62.2%; negative predictive value = 82.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Random blood glucose could possibly be used to assess glycaemic control among patients with type 2 DM in rural settings of sub-Saharan Africa.

Several Conventional Risk Markers Suggesting Presence of Albuminuria Are Weak Among Rural Africans With Hypertension.

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to investigate risk markers indicating the presence of albuminuria in patients with hypertension in rural sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Urine albumin-creatinine ratio, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c ), blood pressure, anthropometry, and other patient characteristics including medications were assessed. We identified 160 patients with hypertension, of whom 68 (42.5%) were co-diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM). Among the included participants, 57 (35.6%) had albuminuria (microalbuminuria [n=43] and macroalbuminuria [n=14]). A backward multivariate logistic regression model identified age (per 10-year increment) (odds ratio [OR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.95), HbA1c >53 compared with <48 mmol/mol (OR, 3.81; 95% CI, 1.74-8.35), and treatment with dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers (OR, 2.59; 95% CI, 1.09-6.16) as the variables significantly associated with albuminuria. Only dysregulated DM and age were the conventional risk markers that seemed to suggest albuminuria among patients with hypertension in rural SSA.