Carotid plaque and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is the basic cause of macrovasular complications of diabetes mellitus. It affects all parts of the circulatory tree. An easy and reliable method of diagnosing atherosclerosis is Carotid Doppler ultrasonography. Increased Carotid Intima-Medial thickness (CIMT) and presence of carotid plaque is an important predictor of ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular accidents. The purpose of this study was to find the association of carotid plaque with cardio-metabolic risk factors in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting:  Medical Out-patient Department of Creek General Hospital, Karachi. Period: One year from June 2015 to May 2016. Subjects and Methods: The study population included 119 cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus. All subjects underwent Carotid Doppler ultrasonography. The demographic, anthropometric, clinical and laboratory data was collected and analyzed through SPSS ver.20.0. The relationship of carotid plaque with different atherosclerotic variables was assessed by Student’s t-test and Chi-square test. P-value of <0.5 was considered significant. Results: Out of 119 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, 18.5% had a carotid plaque. The presence of plaque was associated with duration of diabetes, presence of hypertension, BMI, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglyceride levels and CIMT. Conclusion: We need to focus on management of the multiple metabolic abnormalities associated with diabetes mellitus in order to prevent atherosclerosis and its associated cardiovascular disease.