Saima Saud, Shahjahan.
Obesity indices and oral hypoglycemic drugs response.
Professional Med J Jan ;9(1):6-12.

The present study was planned to correlate obesity parameters (i.e. body mass index, waist to hip ratio and percentage body fat) with dosages of oral hypoglycemic drugs for good control in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Seventy patients (32 males and 38 females) attending Diabetic Clinic of Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore were included in the study. Thirty-four patients were classified as obese and 36 as non-obese on the basis of percentage body fat. No significant difference in waist/hip ratio, body mass index and fasting and postprandial glucose level was seen between obese and non-obese patients. Age of 57 out of 70 diabetic patients was >40 years and half of them were seen to be obese. Obese patients above 40 years had significantly high BMI as compared to non-obese patients. Forty-four (63%) patients showed good control, 17 (24%) had bad control while 9 (13%) were of borderline control of diabetes. Among good control patients, non-obese subject showed significantly (p<0.01) lower incident of increase waist to hip ratio and higher BMI while bad control and borderline subjects showed non-significant distribution. Fasting and postprandial glucose levels of both good control-obese and bad control obese patients were significantly higher as compared to non-obese patients. All the 70 patients in the present study were on hypoglycemic drugs, 11 patients (4 obese and 7 non-obese) on sulfonylurea showed good control on low dosage, whereas good control was seen in 33 patients on high dosage metformin and combination therapy of sulfonylurea and metformin irrespective of obesity of the patients, indicates insulin resistance. Thus insulin resistance may be due to some other factors rather than the obesity and failure of release of insulin.

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