{"title":"Diabetes Mellitus in Elderly Patients","authors":"M. Thabet","doi":"10.19080/crdoj.2021.14.555889","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background: Diabetes mellitus, a chronic metabolic disease, is considerably increasing among elderly patients. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality especially in these patients who usually had many comorbidity. Aim: The aim was to describe the clinical characteristics and complications in elderly patient with diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: A retrospective single-center study performed in the internal medicine department at a teaching hospital of Sahloul, Tunisia between 2005 and 2014 and 338 elderly patients (>=65 years according to WHO) were enrolled. Information’s regarding demographic and clinical characteristics were obtained from medical files. Results: Three-hundred thirty-eight old patients were diabetics. The mean age was 73 years old. All of them had type 2 diabetes mellitus. Obesity was observed in 55 (16.2%) patients. Acute metabolic complications were found in 47 patients; ketosis in 34 patients, hyperosmolar in 10 patients and hypoglycemia in 3 patients. Twenty-five (24%) patients were smoker. Diabetes was complicated by neuropathy in 58 (17.1%) patients, retinopathy in 32 (9.4%) patients, nephropathy in 77 (22.7%) patients, acute ischemic stroke in 58 (17.1%) patients, limb arteritis in 40 (11.8%) patients and ischemic heart disease in 61 (18.04%) patients. The lipid abnormalities were: hypercholesterolemia 8 (2.3%), hypo HDL, cholesterol 114 cases (33.7%) and hypertriglyceridemia 69 (20.4%). Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus is very common in elderly patients. Given the high risk and complications of diabetes in these patients, a regular follow-up and early screening is required.","PeriodicalId":92021,"journal":{"name":"Current research in diabetes & obesity journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current research in diabetes & obesity journal","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.19080/crdoj.2021.14.555889","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
Background: Diabetes mellitus, a chronic metabolic disease, is considerably increasing among elderly patients. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality especially in these patients who usually had many comorbidity. Aim: The aim was to describe the clinical characteristics and complications in elderly patient with diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: A retrospective single-center study performed in the internal medicine department at a teaching hospital of Sahloul, Tunisia between 2005 and 2014 and 338 elderly patients (>=65 years according to WHO) were enrolled. Information’s regarding demographic and clinical characteristics were obtained from medical files. Results: Three-hundred thirty-eight old patients were diabetics. The mean age was 73 years old. All of them had type 2 diabetes mellitus. Obesity was observed in 55 (16.2%) patients. Acute metabolic complications were found in 47 patients; ketosis in 34 patients, hyperosmolar in 10 patients and hypoglycemia in 3 patients. Twenty-five (24%) patients were smoker. Diabetes was complicated by neuropathy in 58 (17.1%) patients, retinopathy in 32 (9.4%) patients, nephropathy in 77 (22.7%) patients, acute ischemic stroke in 58 (17.1%) patients, limb arteritis in 40 (11.8%) patients and ischemic heart disease in 61 (18.04%) patients. The lipid abnormalities were: hypercholesterolemia 8 (2.3%), hypo HDL, cholesterol 114 cases (33.7%) and hypertriglyceridemia 69 (20.4%). Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus is very common in elderly patients. Given the high risk and complications of diabetes in these patients, a regular follow-up and early screening is required.