Management of newly diagnosed non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes mellitus: a retrospective audit.

A retrospective survey of the case records of 130 patients with newly diagnosed non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) was performed to assess the effect of 1 year of clinical attendance on blood glucose control, body weight, lipid profile and blood pressure. The mean age of these patients was 63 +/- (SE) 0.1 years and 45% were 65 years or older. Body mass index (BMI) was 28.3 +/- 0.49 kg m-2 and 72% were overweight or obese. Sixty-seven percent of the patients were hypertensive (WHO criteria). Serum cholesterol was 6.0 +/- 0.2 mmol/l, HDL cholesterol 1.0 +/- 0.0 mmol/l and triglycerides 3.14 +/- 0.29 mmol/l (non-fasting). Seventy-two percent of the patients were managed on diet alone and 23% by diet plus sulphonylurea. The remaining 5% were treated by metformin or a combination of metformin plus sulphonylurea. After one year, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1) decreased from 10.7 +/- 0.3% to 8.2 +/- 0.2% (P less than 0.01; normal less than 7.5%). The sulphonylurea groups showed similar decreases in HbA1. Overall there was a small but significant fall in BMI (-0.5 +/- 0.2 kg m-2; P less than 0.05). However, the diet treated patients showed a significant decrease in BMI (-0.8 +/- 0.3 kg m-2; P less than 0.01) whilst BMI increased in the sulphonylurea treated group (+0.7 +/- 0.2 kg m-2; P less than 0.01). Serum lipid concentrations remained unchanged in both groups. The proportion of patients with hypertension remained the same. Hence after one year of clinical attendance, HbA1 improved but there was minimal change in the associated cardiovascular risk factors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)