Profile of metabolic abnormalities seen in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their first degree relatives with metabolic syndrome seen in Benin City, Edo state Nigeria

BACKGROUND To determine the profile of metabolic abnormalities in T2DM persons with metabolic syndrome and their non-diabetic first-degree relatives who also had metabolic syndrome in Benin City. METHODOLOGY This was a cross sectional case controlled study in which convenience sampling technique was used to recruit 106 persons with T2DM, 96 people who are first degree relatives of type 2 diabetic persons and 96 controls using a interviewer administered questionnaire technique. The following were assessed: anthropometric indices, blood pressure, serum lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, proteinuria, and microalbuminuria. The data obtained were analyzed using the statistical software-Statistical package for social sciences [SPSS] version 16. A p-value of less than 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. RESULTS THE MEAN AGE (SD) OF THE STUDY GROUPS WERE: persons living with T2DM: 58.6 ± 11.2 years, control: 57.69 ± 60.8 years and FDR: 57.4 ± 10.6 years. No significant age and sex differences were observed in these groups. There were more females (59.7%) than males (40.3%) with T2DM. The prevalence of MS was 13.5%, 16.7%, and 87.1% in the control, FDR and T2DM patients respectively. For the T2DM group of subjects, impaired fasting glycaemia was the commonest metabolic abnormality followed by microalbuminuria, low HDL cholesterol, high LDL cholesterol, hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia in decreasing frequency. For the FDR group, low HDL cholesterol was the commonest metabolic abnormality followed by hypertriglyceridaemia, impaired fasting glucose, high LDL cholesterol, hypertriglyceridaemia and microalbuminuria in decreasing frequency. Hypercholesterolemia and low HDL cholesterol were the commonest metabolic abnormalities in the control group. CONCLUSION The prevalence of the MS in persons with T2DM in Nigeria appears to be high. Secondly, there is a high prevalence of lipid abnormalities in all the study groups.