Endocrine Abstracts

Research objective: To examine the frequency of chronic complications of type 2 diabetes with regard to age, sex, duration of diabetes and glucoregulation.

Subjects and methods: The research included 78 subjects of both sexes with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes treated in the Health Center of the Osijek-Baranja County. The following data were collected: gender, age, duration of diabetes, type of diabetes therapy and HbA1c, and complications of diabetes.

Results: The research was conducted on 78 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), of which 34 (43.6%) were men and 44 (56.4%) were women. The median age of the subjects is 71 years, and the median duration of T2DM is 8 years. 39.7% had microvascular complications, and 26.9% had macrovascular complications. The most common microvascular complication is diabetic retinopathy (26.9%), followed by diabetic neuropathy (16.7%) and diabetic nephropathy (9%). Cerebrovascular disease (10.3%) is the most common macrovascular complication, followed by cardiovascular disease (5.1%) and peripheral vascular disease (5.1%). No complications were diagnosed in 33.3% of patients. Nephropathy was diagnosed 3 years after T2DM diagnosis, neuropathy, retinopathy, and coronary artery disease after 5 years, cerebrovascular insult after 6 years, and peripheral vascular disease after 8 years. Patients whose HbA1c values are higher than 7.5% have retinopathy (P=0.002), neuropathy (P=0.03) and ischemic heart disease (P=0.02) more often. In women, the incidence of neuropathy is statistically significantly more frequent than in men (P=0.004). Subjects with microvascular complications were significantly older (P=0.04), median age 74 years, compared to those without microvascular complications.

Conclusion: Chronic complications in patients with T2DM occur most often in older patients with a longer duration of the disease and poorer regulation of diabetes. A third of the patients had microvascular complications, a quarter of the subjects had macrovascular complications. The most common microvascular complication is diabetic retinopathy, followed by diabetic neuropathy and diabetic nephropathy. Of the macrovascular complications, cerebrovascular disease is the most common, followed by cardiovascular and peripheral vascular disease. Diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic neuropathy and coronary disease were diagnosed in the first 5 years after the diagnosis of diabetes, and cerebrovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease in the second 5 years. Patients with elevated HbA1c more often have retinopathy, neuropathy and ischemic heart disease.

Key words: Type 2 diabetes, Chronic complications, Diabetic retinopathy, Diabetic neuropathy, Diabetic nephropathy