Prevalence and pattern of Dyslipidaemia among patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus in Southern Sri Lanka; a cross sectional study

Introduction: Dyslipidaemia is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in diabetes mellitus. However, the magnitude and characteristic features of dyslipidaemia among Sri Lankans with newly diagnosed diabetes is not yet known.We aimed to study the prevalence and pattern of dyslipidaemia in a cohort of patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

 

Methods: This study was carried out in 403 newly diagnosed T2DM patients attending a specialist diabetic clinic in Southern Sri Lanka. Dyslipidaemia was diagnosed if patients had one or more parameters of lipid profile outside the target values recommended by theAmerican DiabetesAssociation (ADA).

 

Results: Diabetic dyslipidaemia was observed in 90% of patients with females having higher prevalence (94.7%) than males (87.0%, P=0.04). The most prevalent type of dyslipidaemia was isolated elevation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (84.3%) Raised triglyceride (TG) and low high density lipoprotein (HDL) were comparatively less common and observed in less than 20% subjects. Factors such as obesity, waist circumference, age and degree of hyperglycaemia at presentation had no significant effect on the pattern and prevalence of dyslipidaemia.

 

Conclusions: This study revealed a higher prevalence and a different pattern of dyslipidaemia among newly diagnosed patients with T2DM. Finding of raised LDL with relatively low TG observed in this study was different to the pattern of diabetic Dyslipidaemia described in Caucasians.