Prevalence of microvascular complications in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients

Background: Microvascular complications are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients and currently their prevalence is increasing in newly diagnosed diabetics1,2,3,4. These complications develop after a long period of asymptomatic hyperglycemia5,6 but are also being diagnosed in newly diagnosed T2DM with varying prevalence. This higher prevalence may be because of delayed diagnosis or earlier development of complications5,6,7, and at present there is limited nationwide data regarding prevalence of microvascular complications in newly diagnosed diabetes patients. Aim: To study the prevalence of microvascular complications in newly diagnosed T2DM patients. Methods: This cross sectional observational study of 150 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics (<6 months duration) was conducted in department of medicine of BRD Medical College Gorakhpur. Every patient was screened for microvascular complications following standard protocol and detailed clinical evaluation was also done. Results: In the study of total 150 patients with mean age 57.9±11.4 years, prevalence of nephropathy, neuropathy and retinopathy was 41.3%, 31.3%, and 14.7% and these complications were associated with risk factors such as hypertension, positive family history, higher HbA1c level and illiteracy. Conclusion: Our study showed high prevalence of microvascular complications in type 2 diabetics at the time of diagnosis in Indian population. In this view, screening must be done in all diabetics for microvascular complications at the time of diagnosis.