ABSTRACT
Diabetes Mellitus is the most common endocrine-metabolic disease in children. Diabetic patients with hyperlipidemia frequently develop atherosclerosis which is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum lipids total serum cholesterol, total serum triglyceride [TGs], High density lipoprotein [HDL-C], Low density lipoprotein [LDL-C] and very low density lipoprotein [VLDL-C] in children with type-1 diabetes mellitus in comparison with controls, and to determine the relationship of lipid profile with gender, body mass index [BMI] and duration of diabetes among patients. In this case-control study, the lipid profiles of 52 patients aged 6-18 years [27 males 25 females] with established type 1 diabetes were compared with those of 52 healthy controls of the same age and gender from the first of December 2007 to the 29[th] of February 2008. The lipid profiles of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus showed the following values, the mean total serum cholesterol 175 +/- 55 mg/dl, total serum TGs 140 +/- 135 mg/dl, HDL-C 59 +/- 19 mg/dl, LDL-C 93 +/- 51 mg/dl and that of VLDL-C 23 +/- 13 mg/dl, whereas for the controls they were 136 +/- 34 mg/dl, 74 +/- 25 mg/dl, 53 +/- 15 mg/dl, 68 +/- 30 mg/dl and 15 +/- 5 mg/dl respectively. The abnormalities in lipid profile regarding total serum cholesterol, total serum TGs, LDL-C and VLDL-C showed that they were significantly higher in diabetic patients than in control group, while HDL-C although it was higher among diabetic patients, but it was not statistically significant. Total serum TGs was significantly increased with the duration of diabetes