BRUNEI-MUARA

IF YOU are a younger Diabetes Mellitus patient it does not necessarily mean that you can control your glucose or sugar level any better than if you were an older one.

A preliminary study done between January 2014 and March 2015 on 97 patients aged between 20 to 90 years old found that age had no strong correlation with glucose control levels.

About 49 per cent of patients were found to have good control of their glucose levels. They were aged between 20 and 90 years. Similar was the case with patients who had poor control of their glucose levels.

The patient found to have the highest glucose level was in his early thirties.

Pg Dr Hj Sofian Pg Hj Metassan of the Department of Laboratory Services, Ministry of Health said this during a presentation at the Ninth Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei Medical Science Conference 2015 at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam yesterday.

The joint study was done with his colleague Fatiha Burut and their study was entitled “The association between glycemic control and Prothrombin Time in a Brunei population”.

“Diabetes Mellitus is one of the leading causes of death in Brunei Darussalam … and hyperglycemia (excess of glucose in the bloodstream) due to uncontrolled diabetes may alter the properties of the coagulation factors, the study said.

“Thus the aim of the study was to determine the association between HbA1c (measurement for glucose control) and coagulation tests (in the age of) diabetic patients,” it added.

Speaking to The Brunei Times after the presentation, he said that there was concern about patietns who had poor glucose control because diabetes patients are at a higher risk of developing thrombotic events – a formation of a blood clot inside the blood vessel that can obstruct the blood flow through the circulatory system.

Pg Dr Hj Sofian said this could result in macrovascular and microvascular effects to the patients.

For example, the former can cause atherosclerosis – hardening of the arteries which is the leading cause of heart attacks and strokes, while the latter can cause diabetic retinopathy which leads to blindness, he said.

Loss of vision can be caused by the change in the blood vessels of the retina. A healthy retina is necessary for good vision, he added.

He said that given the advances of technology it would be good if smart watches of the future were also able to indicate the glucose levels in one’s body.

The Brunei Times