Survey of the Iron Status of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Attending Hospitals in Jos

Background and Objective: Epidemiological studies have shown that high body iron stores are associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to evaluate iron status of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Blood samples were collected from participants after overnight fast.
Materials and Methods: Two hundred (200) subjects comprising 130 type 2 diabetics attending Hospitals in Jos and 70 normal subjects as controls were involved in the survey. Questionnaires were used in the recruitment of participants. Serum ferritin (SF) was assayed by ELISA method, while other parameters were determined colorimetrically.
Results: Diabetics presented with higher mean age, BMI, and blood pressure than non diabetics. Also, diabetics had elevated serum ferritin, SI, TIBC, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides, and TC/HDL ratio, lower serum HDL; elevated serum aminotransferases and creatinine than non diabetic subjects. There was a strong and significant positive correlation between serumn ferritin levels and each of six diabetes mellitus risk factors: systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, serum total cholesterol (TC), serum triglyceride (TG), HDL and TC/HDL.
Conclusion: This work has shown that type 2 diabetic subjects exhibited strong positive diagnostic features for the indices of iron status, dyslipidaemia, liver damage and kidney dysfunction compared to non diabetic subjects.