Glycated Haemoglobin as Seen at the Plateau Specialist Hospital, Jos. Nigeria

The use of glycated haemoglobin (Hba1C) in assessing long term glycemic control is well known. However, its use as cardiovascular risk remains controversial. Availability, technicality and cost has made it uncommon among the developing countries. A short over view may add up to the scanty literature on HBA1c in Plateau Specialist Hospital, Jos. Nigeria. Design and methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of HBA1c records from the side-laboratory of the Jos University Teaching Hospital. The test was determined using STANDARD TM A1cCare analyzer. Results: A total of 264 patients were tested in the “point-of-care” laboratory within six months (1st quarter 2020). They consisting of 149 (56.4%) female, with a total mean age of 55years. 80.7% of total records were diabetic and 14.4% diabetic hypertensive. A heterogeneous group of non-diabetics consist of the remaining 19.3%. The non-diabetic group had a mean HBA1c of 6.79 % (+/- 2.2). The group of diabetes without hypertension had a mean HBA1c 8.54% (+/- 2.9) while diabetic hypertensive had a mean HBA1c of 8.8% (+/- 3.7). AVOVA showed significant variation in the three group (p<0.002). a two-unpaired t-test among the two diabetic group showed no statistical difference (p-0.66). Conclusion: Patients that are not diagnosed to be diabetic attending clinics for other aliments were more likely to be pre-diabetics. Long term diabetic control in the Jos University Teaching Hospital is rather poor and hypertension appear not to have significant effect on HBA1c level.