Cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetic Nigerians with clinical diabetic nephropathy.

This study aimed to assess the distribution of cardiovascular risk factors among subjects with type 2 clinical diabetic nephropathy, since in diabetic subjects, the excess mortality in cardiovascular events is primarily related to nephropathy. The study group consisted of 162 subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus and persistent proteinuria, and the control group was 80 type 2 diabetic subjects without nephropathy. In the study group there were 81 male and 81 female subjects whose mean age was 53.4 +/- 6.3 years. There was no significant consumption of alcohol and cigarette use in the population. The mean waist-hip ratio (WHR) was 0.97 and 0.96 in male and female subjects, respectively. The mean body mass index (BMI) of the subjects was 25.5 +/- 5.2 (males: 24.4 +/- 4.3, females: 27.2 +/- 5.5). A total of 106 subjects, made up of 45 male (27.8%) and 61 female (37.7%) subjects, were hypertensive as compared with 16 controls (20%). There was a significant difference in systolic blood pressure (p < 0.05) between the obese and non-obese subjects. One hundred and thirty three subjects (82.1%) had serum total cholesterol below 200 mg% as compared with 74 (92.5% ) in the control. Seventy-eight subjects (48.1%) had left ventricular hypertrophy. Males had a higher tendency of developing left ventricular hypertrophy (p = 0.04). Stroke and peripheral vascular disease respectively occurred more commonly in type 2 diabetes mellitus subjects with nephropathy [7 (4%) and 44 (27.2%)] compared to type 2 diabetic subjects without nephropathy [0 (0% ) and 9 (11.3% )] (p < 0.05). We found that there is a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among Nigerian subjects with clinical diabetic nephropathy.