Asian Hematology Research Journal

Background: Diabetes mellitus has over the years become a public health challenge and a complex disease which is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia that results in microvascular and macrovascular complications.

Aim: The present study was designed to determine the hematological profile of type 2 diabetic (T2DM) patients in Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital, Enugu State, Nigeria.

Methods: A total of 240 subjects comprising 120 T2DM (60 males and 60 females) aged 20-55 years and 120 apparently healthy age and gender-matched controls were recruited for the study.  Blood sample (5.0ml) was collected from each subject for the analyses of the hematological parameters using Mindray 530 BC automated analyzer, Mindray Japan. The data was analysed using T-test and level of significance set at p<0.05.

Results: The result revealed significantly decreased Mean Cell Volume (MCV) (86.54 + 0.85) in the T2DM subjects compared to the controls (89.88 + 1.09) and significantly increased Basophil count (0.93 + 0.09) in the T2DM subjects compared to the controls (0.22 + 0.03).

Conclusion: These findings supports the claim for alterations in hematological profile of T2DM patients.