Evaluation of serum cortisol and growth hormone in type 2 diabetic subjects attending University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Emerging data shows that type 2 diabetes is the commonest form of diabetes and the prevalence level is increasing at an alarming rate.Diabetogenic hormones play a role in the complications of diabetes mellitus.This study therefore is an attempt to evaluate the serum cortisol and GH in type 2 diabetic subjects.These hormones have the potential to exacerbate the diabetic condition if produced in inappropriate amounts.Samples from 105 confirmed type 2 diabetic subjects attending Metabolic Clinic of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and 71 non diabetic volunteers of identical age-matched were analyzed for fasting blood sugar, growth hormone, cortisol, insulin.Plasma glucose was estimated by the enzymatic method (glucose oxidase).Cortisol, growth hormone and insulin were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method.The data generated was analyzed using statistical software SPSS version 16.0 and Microsoft excels 2007.All the results were expressed as mean±SEM.The study revealed that serum cortisol and insulin were significantly higher (P< 0.05) in type 2 diabetic subjects (163.47±8.91ng/ml and 13.60± 1.47µiu/ml) compared to the non-diabetic controls (94.14±4.97ng/ml) and 8.17± 0.72 µiu/ml) respectively.A significant inverse correlation was observed between cortisol and insulin.This is consistent with the activity of cortisol as a diabetogenic hormone.Over fourteen percent (14.3%) of the diabetic subjects had abnormally high cortisol values.This would contribute to the diabetic condition in these patients.The mean growth hormone value was significantly lower in type 2 diabetics (P< 0.05) when compared to the control group (0.42± 0.06ng/ml versus 0.84± 0.22 ng/ml).The mean BMI of the diabetic subjects was significantly higher than the mean for controls.Raised cortisol is a possible exacerbating factor in some cases of type 2 diabetes.These patients should be routinely screened for the hormone.