Clinical investigation on diabetes mellitus in very elderly patients

Abstract

Objective To study the clinical characteristics of very elderly patients aged 80 years and over with diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods Clinical data of 95 very elderly patients with diabetes mellitus were retrospectively analyzed. Results Among 95 patients, patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus accounted for 98.9% (94/95), patients with asymptomatic onset accounted for 35.8% (34/95). The incidence of acute complications of diabetes mellitus was 11.6% (11/95). Chronic complications of peripheral neuropathy and diabetic nephropathy were more common, and their incidences were 83.2% (79/95) and 45.3% (43/95), respectively.The percentage of patients with multiple chronic complications was up to 45.3% (43/95). The percentage of DM patients combined with hypertension, coronary heart disease, cerebral infarction, hyperlipidemia or cardiac valve calcification was 80.0% (76/95), 48.4% (46/95), 77.9% (74/95), 42.1% (40/95) and 33.7% (32/95), respectively.There were 29 patients (30.5%) with the simultaneous presence of DM, hypertension, cerebral infarction, coronary heart disease, and hyperlipidemia in a same patient.The proportion of DM patients with low serum albumin was 47.4% (45/95), and the rate achieving the target low density lipoprotein level was only 35.8% (34/95). In the treatment, 67.4% (64/95) of patients were treated with oral hypoglycemic agents combined with insulin injection.The incidence of hypoglycemia was 24.2% (23/95), and 69.6% (16/23) of them had no self-conscious hypoglycemic symptoms. Conclusions Chronic complications are common in elderly diabetes mellitus patients.The elderly DM patients are prone to have many complications at the same time, with a higher incidence of hypoglycemic value under 3.9 mmol/L and lower rate of hypoglycemic symptoms. Key words: Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes complications