Lipid profile and its relation to fasting insulin level in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM).

ABSTRACT

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in NIDDM patients. But the exact pathophysiology of accelerated atherosclerosis seen in NIDDM is not completely understood. Hyperinsulinemia and hyperlipidemia frequently coexist in these subjects. Present study was undertaken to demonstrate relationship of serum insulin with atherogenic lipids in 92 (male = 62, female = 30) newly diagnosed, middle-aged, nonsmoking, uncomplicated and untreated NIDDM patients with normal body mass index (BMI). Fourty (male = 20, female = 20) non-diabetic healthy subjects with a negative family history of diabetes served as control. After an overnight fasting, venous blood was collected for plasma glucose, serum insulin and lipid profile. ECG and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) were done in all subjects. Diabetes mellitus was diagnosed by WHO criteria. Total cholesterol, LDL-c, LDL/HDL ratio, TG (p always < 0.001) and fasting serum insulin (p = 0.033) were significantly higher and HDL-c was significantly lower (p = 0.001) in NIDDM than control subjects. Fasting serum insulin was inversely related to the degree of hyperglycemia in NIDDM subjects (r = -0.1867; p = 0.037). NIDDM with hyperinsulinemia (n = 18) had a strong negative correlation (r = -0.449, p = 0.031) with HDL-c. Neither total cholesterol nor LDL-c had any significant correlation with insulin. The results indicate that diabetic state itself is associated with atherogenic lipid disorder.