Abstract
Impaired lipid metabolism resulting from uncontrolled hyperglycaemia has been implicated in diabetes and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) used as predictor of uncontrolled hyperglycaemia. The present study is aimed at analyzing the HbA1c level, lipid profile and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), in type-2 diabetics in Enugu. Ninety (90) type-2 diabetic patients (46 males and 44 females) drawn from the diabetic clinic and 40 apparently-healthy, non-diabetics (20 males and 20 females), all aged 45-70 years, were included in the study. Venous blood samples were collected from the subjects after 8 hours fasting and analyzed for HbA1c, fasting blood glucose (FBG), total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TG) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C), whereas low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL-C) and AIP were calculated using standard procedures. Data was analyzed with SPSS computer software version 11 using student’s t-test at 95% confidence limit. The results showed significant increase (P<0.05) in AIP and the lipid profile parameters, and highly significant increase (P<0.001) in FBG and HbA1c in the diabetic patients. LDL-C was not significantly increased in the test subjects compared to controls. Blood pressure was significantly increased (P<0.05) whereas body mass index (BMI) revealed central obesity in the patients. Significant increase in HbA1c, AIP and BMI was observed in the diabetic patients compared to the control. All the subjects had AIP in the medium CV risk group. The study suggests that the diabetic patients might also be predisposed to the risk of complications from dislipidaemia.