Frequency of Impaired Glucose Tolerance in Hypertensive Patients

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in hypertensive patients. DESIGN: Descriptive cross-sectional study PLACE: Civil Hospital Karachi SAMPLE SIZE: Eighty patients DURATION: July 2001 to July 2002 PATIENTS AND METHODS: All the hypertensive patients above 30 years of age of both sexes were included in this study. A detailed relevant history, physical examination including BP was carried out and all the base line investigations and Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) were performed. Data of each patient were entered on a separate perfoma. RESULTS: Eighty hypertensive patients were studied, out of these 46 (57.5%) were females and 34 (42.5%) were males. The ages of patients were between 32-80 years, mean age + SD was 55.725 + 13.364. The maximum patients were in 41-60 years of age (56.25%). Results of this study showing that the frequency of IGT was 46.2%, prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) was 8.7% and prevalence of diabetes was 5% in these hypertensive patients. CONCLUSION: It is concluded hat impaired glucose tolerance is related to hypertension and other clinical and metabolic abnormalities such as obesity, smoking, hyperlipidemia and family history of DM and positive history of intake of diabetogenic antihypertensive drugs such as diuretics and beta-blockers. Hypertensive patients should be screened for glucose tolerance by OGTT on mass level for the prevention of diabetes. It is an easy and cost effective approach.