Comparative study on fasting and postprandial lipid profile in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Context: Postprandial dyslipidemia plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and possible macrovascular complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Aims: To assess and compare the fasting and postprandial lipid profiles in type 2 DM patients. Settings and Design: This case-control study was conducted in the Medicine department of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods and Materials: The study included 100 subjects; 50 type 2 diabetic patients and 50 healthy age- and gender-matched controls. Fasting and postprandial lipid levels were estimated in all the subjects and compared. Statistical Analysis Used: The Student's t-test and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test were used for comparison between two and more than two groups, respectively, for normally distributed data. Results: Mean total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) levels were significantly higher and high density lipoprotein (HDL) level was significantly lower in the diabetics in comparison to the controls in both fasting (200.82, 172.59, 126.20, 37.63, and 40.74 mg/dL in diabetics versus 179.90, 98.03, 109.54, 19.60, and 50.46 mg/dL in controls) and postprandial states (223.75, 232.99, 139.19, 46.52, and 40.54 mg/dL in diabetics versus 185.36, 102.20, 110.36, 20.24, and 48.96 mg/dL in controls). The mean postprandial TC and TG levels (223.75, 232.99 mg/dL) in diabetics were significantly higher when compared to their fasting values (200.82, 172.59 mg/dL) in these patients. Conclusions: Type 2 DM patients show significant postprandial lipid abnormalities particularly postprandial hypertriglyceridemia. Raised postprandial lipid parameters highlight that estimating lipids in the postprandial state is equally important as is estimation of lipids in the fasting state in type 2 DM.