The Commonly Encountered Rheumatological Manifestations amongst Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Introduction: Type 1 DM is the result of complete or neartotal insulin deficiency. Type 2 DM is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by variable degrees of insulin resistance, impaired insulin secretion, and increased glucose production. Several studies have reported an association of early osteoarthritis and DM. The present study was conducted with the aim to analyze the commonly encountered rheumatological manifestations amongst patients with type 2 diabetes. Material and methods: The study was conducted among 100 patients of already diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus, attending outpatient/inpatient department of Department of Medicine, Rajindra Hospital/ Government Medical College, Patiala. The selected patients were subjected to further evaluation using Baseline diabetic questionnaire: Name, age, sex, occupation especially manual labor, height, weight, BMI (We considered overweight subjects with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 and obesity with BMI >30 kg/m2)3, duration and onset of type 2 diabetes, smoking habits, any history of systemic diseases, medications: oral hypoglycemic or insulin injection, blood sugar level: fasting, post prandial and glycosylated hemoglobin. Musculoskeletal system was systematically examined. Student t test was used for statistical analysis. Probability value of less than 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The age ranges from 41 years to 80 years. Most of the patients were between 61-70 years of age and were 40% of the total patients. In our study out of 100 diabetic patients 27 had rheumatological manifestations. The most common manifestation was Osteoarthritis (Osteoarthritis knee in our study) which was found to be present in 14% cases. Out of 100 patients 27 had rheumatological manifestations out of which 11 were males and 16 were females. 35 males and 38 females were without rheumatological manifestations. Conclusion: Rheumatological manifestations are common amongst subjects with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. The overall prevalence of rheumatological manifestations was 27%. This could be helpful in preventing chronic disability in patients and improving their quality of life. Good glycemic control is a key to prevent rheumatological manifestations in patients with T2DM.