Sreenivasulu Uppara1 , Bhagyamma Sollapurappa Narayanaswamy2 , Rama Kishore Akula Venkata3 , Thanuja Ramanna4 , Shyam Prasad B.R.5
BACKGROUND The multi-organ disorder, diabetes mellitus (DM) continues to be one of the commonest and challenging health-related problems in the 20th century, prevalent in about 9.3 % of the world's population in 2019 and likely to affect 10.2 % by 2030. Diabetes mellitus is a group of chronic metabolic disorders of multiple aetiology, characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia due to derangement in carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism. Electrolytes are crucial in maintaining various metabolic functions and play a pivotal role in maintaining a healthy state's body. Diabetic patients are more prone to and frequently develop a constellation of electrolyte disorders due to hyperglycaemia, polydipsia and polyuria. METHODS Our study comprised a total of 70 subjects in the age group of 35 - 60 years with age and sex-matched controls. They were grouped into two groups; the first group, group-1 (healthy controls) and the second group was group-2 (patients of diabetes mellitus on oral hypoglycaemic agents with poor control). 5 ml of fasting venous blood was collected in a plain vacutainer tube in the morning after a zerocalorie overnight 08 hours fast. Post collection, the blood sample was used as serum or plasma or whole blood to estimate plasma glucose, blood urea, serum creatinine, serum sodium, serum potassium, serum chloride by kit methods using an auto analyser. RESULTS Among the various parameters tested, the mean value of fasting plasma glucose, blood urea, serum creatinine, serum potassium, serum chloride were higher in group-2 (diabetic patients) compared to group-1 (healthy controls) with a p-value of < 0.0001. The value of the mean of serum sodium was lower in group-2 (diabetes mellitus) compared to group-1 (healthy controls) with a p-value of < 0.0001. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that electrolyte abnormalities are present in diabetic patients and maybe a root cause for associated morbidity or mortality. These disturbances are generally seen in decompensated Diabetes Mellitus patients, elderly individuals and in the presence of renal impairment.
