The Medical Journal of Basrah University

Abstract

ABSTRACT
The study was conducted on 210 patients of both sexes suffering from Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus to investigate the effected of diet or
hypoglycemic agents therapy on fasting blood sugar (FBS) and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Seventy-two of the patients
treated by diet only and 138 by hypoglycemic agents. Another 95 adult individuals taken from the same population who were
apparently healthy and not suffering from diabetes mellitus were used as controls. A statistical higher values of FBS
(178.13±70.84 mg/dl for diet and 219.08±73.02 mg/dl for hypoglyecemic group) and HbA1c (8.35±2.07% for diet and 9.57±1.83
% for hypoglycemic group) were found among the diabetic patients in comparison with the control group (FBS=99.73±9.04
mg/dl, HbA1c=5.64±0.71%).Comparison between FBS and HbA1c of the diet and those of the hypoglycemic groups showed a
highly significant differences (P<0.0001 for both). A strong correlation was found between FBS and HbA1c of the patients treated
with diet or hypoglycemic agents (r=0.85 and 0.78, respectively, P<0.0001). The study concluded that, diabetes mellitus is a
progressive disease which is difficult to control even by continuous use of diet or hypoglycemic therapy, and measurement of
HbA1c can be used to assess the glycemic state and to confirms FBS measurements.