DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i08.011

Pages: 2786-2789

Diabetes mellitus is the most common endocrine disorder, which can affect any age group and all segments of society. Its prevalence is rising very fast due to life style modifications and sedentary habits. Any organ can be involved in diabetes and skin involvement is very common. Cutaneous signs usually appear after diabetes is established, but sometimes these can appear before the diagnosis is being made and helps in suspecting and making diagnosis of diabetes. So this study is being conducted to evaluate the pattern of cutaneous manifestations in diabetics. 200 patients from dermatology outpatient department having diabetes were enrolled for this observational study and pattern of manifestations were noted after confirming the diagnosis of diabetes and taking informed consent of the patient. Though most of the patients were known cases of diabetes mellitus, but in 26 patients diagnosis of diabetes mellitus was made during the study due to strong suspicion of diabetes in certain skin conditions. Early recognition of these skin manifestations assists in early diagnosis and helps to lead toward appropriate treatment for diabetes mellitus patients. Early diagnosis also shares in preventing long-term complications. Infections (46%) emerged as commonest manifestation. Amongst non-infectious cause diabetic dermopathy was most common, followed by Xerosis. The mean HbA1C level among patients with infective lesions was 8.9 ± 1.2 in contrast to 7.0 ± 1.2 in case of non-infective lesions. So this study not only showed the prevalence of skin manifestations in diabetics, but also contributed to diagnosis of new diabetes patients.