Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a complex disease
characterised by chronic hyperglycemia that leads to long term
macrovascular and microvascular complications. Several studies
have shown that DM affects the morphology and functioning of
red blood cells, white blood cellsand platelets, which is reflected
as aberrations in routinehaematological parameters. Thus the
aim of this study was to determine the changes in haematological
parameters in diabetic patients in comparison to healthy controls.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted
from Jan 2019 till June 2019, in Department of Pathology, SNMC,
Bagalkoton 115 already diagnosed diabetic patientsand 115 age
and sex matched apparently healthy individuals. Haematological
indices, fasting blood glucose and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c)
levelswere determined. p-value less than 0.05 were considered as
statistically significant. Results: Red cell distribution width was
significantly increased in diabetic patients as compared to the
control group (17.46 ± 1.75 vs 13.40 ± 1.69) with a p-value of 0.001.
Both, mean cell volume and mean cell haemoglobin were reduced
with average of 73.29 ± 7.36 and 27.18 ± 3.18 respectively in diabetic
patients, as compared to the control group (p = 0.000). There was
significant difference in red blood cell count between diabetics and
control group (4.63 ± 0.911 vs 4.29 ± 0.67). All biochemical parameters,
fasting blood sugar, post prandial blood sugar and HbA1c (149.55 ±
62.79, 234.77 ± 80.10 and 7.81 ± 2.35 respectively) were significantly
higher in diabetic patients. Though mean platelet volume was higher
in diabetic group (7.78 ± 0.953) as compared to control group (7.10
± 1.207), it was not statistically significant (p = 0.107). Analysis of
peripheral blood smear of diabetic patients showed changes in RBC
morphology. Hypochromia and anisopoikilocytosis were seen. Of
all the parameters, only MPV was statistically correlated with FBS
levels (r = 0.285, p = 0.002). Conclusion: The study showed statistically
significant difference in some haematological parameters of diabetic
patients compared to controls. Thus, routine haematological profile
checkup of diabetic patients is recommended as it may indicate
towards the impending vascular complications associated with
aberrations in haematological parameters.
Keywords: Type 2 Diabetes mellitus; Haematological indices;
Fasting blood sugar; Glycated haemoglobin.