European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Blood glucose and electrolytes have a complicated relationship that is
influenced by a number of other factors such as age and concomitant conditions. As
there is paucity of such studies in India, so present study was to determine the most
prevalent electrolyte disturbances among diabetic in-patients and to explore an
association between blood sugar and electrolyte imbalances.
Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was carried for a duration of
two years among 271 adult patients with diabetes mellitus admitted to the wards and
ICU in a tertiary care centre. Patient-specific information was collected in a structured
schedule and blood sample was collected for laboratory investigations after obtaining
written informed consent. All tests were performed at a 5% level of significance; thus,
an association was significant if the p value was less than 0.05.
Results: In present study (Table 1), the mean age of study subjects was 58.92 ± 13.15
years, with nearly equal representation from males (49.4%) and females (50.6%). The
mean duration of diabetes among subjects was 9.72 ± 6.57 years. The mean HbA1C was
7.65 ± 1.23 % which reflect uncontrolled diabetes. The most common electrolyte
imbalance among enrolled subjects was hyponatremia (33.6%). The mean levels of
serum sodium (group A: 132.82 ± 3.99 vs group B: 135.62 ± 5.12), were statistically
different (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The importance of evaluating serum electrolytes in patients with type 2
diabetes was presented in the study. Electrolytes, particularly sodium, chloride, and
potassium, become significantly disturbed as fasting blood glucose rises.