Anaemia in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus attending regular Diabetic Outpatient Clinic in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Abstract

To investigate the occurrence of anaemia in diabetic patients that came for routine clinic visit in University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Borno State. From August 2003 to February 2004, 53 patients that came for routine diabetic clinic visit had their fasting blood glucose, 2 hours post-prandial and haematocrit estimated as well as examining their peripheral blood film for morphological classification of anaemia. Twenty-one (39.6%) of the 53 patients were found to have anaemia, Sixteen (76.2%) had microcytic hypochromic anaemia and 5 (23.8%) had normocytic normochromic anaemia. Anaemia is commoner in males than females, and is seen in 13(50.0) of patients with good glycaemic control (Fasting blood glucose of less then 7.0mmol/L). Anaemia was seen in 3(75.0%) of the patients with documented chronic renal insufficiency. Anaemia is common in patients with diabetes mellitus. Since most patients with diabetes are rarely concerned about anaemia, they may not seek medical help unless their physician raises the suspicion. There is a need to suspect, investigate and treat anaemia in patients with diabetes presenting with non-specific complaints such as numbness and weakness. The services of dieticians should be employed for dietary counseling because some patients may omit important food items in their daily diet for fear of increasing their blood sugar level.

KEY WORDS: Anaemia, diabetes mellitus.

Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol.4(1) 2005: 1-4