Search

Diabetes mellitus is characterized by major changes in the coagulation and fibrinolytic system. The study was aimed at assessing the degree of changes in the coagulation and fibrinolytic system in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in North-central Nigeria. This was a hospital based comparative Cross-sectional study involving 78 type 2 diabetics and 78 healthy controls. Full blood count was performed using Sysmex XP 300 according to manufacturer's instructions. Prothrombin time was determined using one stage test of Owren. Activated partial thromboplastin time was determined by method of Proctor and Rapaport. Fibrinogen assay was determined using AssayMax Human Fibrinogen ELISA. Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor type-1 was determined using the AssayMax Human PAI-1 ELISA kit. The mean age of the subjects and controls were 60.73 ± 10.8 and 59.65 ± 12.7 years respectively. The mean diastolic blood pressure of subjects with Diabetes was significantly higher than that of the controls (91.84 ± 11.02 vs 87.58 ± 11.3: p-value =0.002). The mean Prothrombin time, Fibrinogen concentration and PAI- 1 level were significantly higher in the subjects than the controls (p = 0.047, 0.031 & 0.020). No significant differences were observed in Platelet count, APTT and INR (P=0.938, 0.664 & 0.059 respectively). This study confirms that diabetes mellitus is a cause of hypercoagulable state as evidenced by the significant alteration in the coagulation and fibrinolytic system. There is need for proper glycaemic control in patients with diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]