Complications of diabetes mellitus and glycemic control

According to the American Diabetes Association's Clinical Practice recommendations, monitoring of glycemic status is considered a cornerstone of management of diabetes mellitus in order to minimize the complications. The objective of our study is to find the relationship between the glycemic status and common complications seen in them. One hundred and five diabetic patients receiving treatment were seen over a period of one year. Among these, patients with diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy, diabetic ulcers and urinary tract infections were segregated. Fasting, postprandial blood sugar (monthly) and glycosylated hemoglobin (once in three months) were estimated. The analysis was carried out by means of Graphpad statistical package.A total of 60 patients had the above complication (15 each). The average duration of the diabetes was 13.65± 1.26, 10.37± 1.25, 13.23±1.75 and 8.86±0.87 years respectively in patients with diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, diabetic foot ulcers and urinary tract infections. We found that the highest FBS, PPBS and glycosylated hemoglobin was seen in patients who had diabetic retinopathy (160.67±10.32, 221.50±9.0, 8.04±0.87 respectively). The lowest values were seen with urinary tract infection (144.17±11.0, 213.50±5.68, 7.77 ±0.47). There was a statistically significant difference between these groups (P<0.05). There was no much difference between the other two parameters. We conclude from our study that urinary tract infections are commonly seen with earliest alternation of blood sugar. Retinopathy was seen in patient with high blood sugars and glycosylated hemoglobin values and with the longest duration of the disease.