Macrovascular disease in middle-aged diabetic patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

To define the prevalence of large vessel disease in Ethiopian diabetic patients, the protocol of the World Health Organisation Multinational Study of Vascular disease in Diabetics was used in the Diabetic Clinic of Yekatit 12 Hospital, Addis Ababa: 221 of the possible 261 patients aged 35 to 54 years were examined during 6 months. One hundred seven were diagnosed diabetic 1 to 6 years before study, 74, 7 to 13 years and 40, 14 years or more before the study. Forty-two percent were taking insulin; 18% had retinopathy, 7% heavy albuminuria. Body mass index (BMI) of less than 18 kg/m2 was found in 13.6%; 6.4% of men had BMI more than 27 and 50% of women more than 25. Only 30 patients had ever smoked cigarettes. The plasma cholesterol was less than 6.72 mmol/l in 90% of the 221 patients. Vascular disease led to the diagnosis of diabetes in 3 patients. At study, 19.9% were hypertensive but only 5% at the time of diagnosis. Only 1 patient had had ischaemic gangrene, 1 a stroke, 4 intermittent claudication, 4 angina pectoris and 1 a myocardial infarction. Electrocardiograms, centrally Minnesota-coded in London, were interpreted as Coronary Disease Probable in only 6 patients, and Coronary Disease Possible in 25; the other 190 tracings were normal. It is concluded that macrovascular disease is uncommon in middle-aged Ethiopian diabetic patients in Addis Ababa.

Assessment of quality of care given to diabetic patients at Jimma University Specialized Hospital diabetes follow-up clinic, Jimma, Ethiopia

“…Due to this fact, the target BP level for diabetes is consistently dropping and has become lower than the target level of the general population [6]. In previous studies in Ethiopia, hypertension was found to be an associated morbidity in 19.9% of diabetic patients as in Lester FT 1988 [31] and 34% Feleke Y 2005 [18]. However, the proportion of patients with hypertension in this study is much higher than the national findings and figures in the western world [29,30].…”

Prevalence and determinants of electrocardiographic abnormalities in sub-Saharan African individuals with type 2 diabetes : cardiovascular topic

“…Some aspects of ECG abnormalities in people with diabetes, such as those relating to LVH,8 ischaemic heart disease9 or QTc prolongation10 have been investigated in a few studies on diabetics in Africa. To the best of our knowledge, however, there is no recent study that has investigated the full spectrum of resting ECG aberrations and potential determinants in people with diabetes in this part of the world.…”

Diabetes in Africa: epidemiology, management and healthcare challenges

“…For example, only 1 of 221 diabetic patients attending the main hospital in Addis Ababa in 1986 had a stroke 57. Known diabetes was present in 2.8% of patients presenting with a stroke in rural Tanzania and at a referral hospital in The Gambia,58 59 but higher rates have been found in Mauritania, where 8% of patients with acute stroke had diabetes and in rural South Africa in 2001, 11.7% of 103 people with strokes had diabetes 53 60.…”