Maxwell M. Nwegbu
Background and objective: Cardiometabolic syndrome is an important risk factor for a number of clinical conditions especially type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study was conducted to determine the patterns of occurrence of diagnostic parameters of cardiometabolic syndrome amongst type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) subjects and non-diabetic controls, and to compare , if any, unique phenotypic findings or differences between these two subject groups. Materials and methods: We undertook a case-control study involving two hundred and sixty-two (262) adult Nigerians comprising 137 T2DM and 125 non-diabetic controls respectively, matched for age and sex. The subject groups were assessed for cardiometabolic syndrome using the National Cholesterol Education Program Third Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP-ATP III) criteria and comparisons were made between these groups on patterns of occurrence of the diagnostic parameters. Results: Findings showed that cardiometabolic syndrome had prevalence rates of 57.6% and 16.8% amongst the T2DM and healthy subject groups respectively. Analysis of the frequency of occurrence of the parameters showed that hypertension, obesity, decreased high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and hypertriglyceridaemia in decreasing order, and was the pattern in both the diabetic and healthy subject groups respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed a fair fit (R2 adj =27.7%) for all subjects with cardiometabolic syndrome using triglycerides (TG), HDL-c and WC as regressors. Low HDL-c and increased WC were better predictor variables for cardiometabolic syndrome among non-diabetics (HDLc: Beta=0.337, WC: Beta=0.341), than diabetics (HDL-c: Beta=0.207, WC: Beta=0.225). Hypertriglyceridemia however had a stronger level of association to cardiometabolic syndrome among diabetics (TG: Beta=0.272) than non-diabetics (TG: Beta= 0.191). Conclusion: The findings from this study show similar patterns in the occurrence of the individual components of cardiometabolic syndrome among the type 2 diabetics and non-diabetic subjects though with different prevalent rates.
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