A Study of Electrolyte Imbalance in Diabetic Patients at a Teritary Care Hospital in Kerala

Most of the diabetic patients will be having many complications and other co-morbidities. They often require multiple drugs for treatment. Diabetes mellitus itself, its complications and various medications all are related to development of electrolyte imbalance, which are often under-estimated or remain un-diagnosed.

To assess the pattern of electrolyte imbalance in diabetic patients

This clinical study was done in the Department of general Medicine, Believers Church Medical College Hospital, Thiruvalla during 2016–17. Data were collected by random sampling from the first 100 adult diabetic patients with electrolyte imbalance, irrespective of their cause of admission.

Total number of patients were 125, male were 89 and female were 36. Mean age was 61.18 years with standard deviation of ± 13.15 years (Range 38–80 years). Among the patients, the mean duration of the diabetes mellitus was 10.06 years with standard deviation ± 7.05 years. Over all 73% of patients had some sort of electrolyte imbalance, irrespective of cause of admission. Hyponatraemia was the most common electrolyte imbalance in this study (75%), followed by hypomagnaesemia (35%), hypokalaemia (32%) and hyperkalaemia (13%). In 10% cases there were hyponatraemia, hypokalaemia and hypomagnaesemia.

it can be concluded that, electrolyte imbalance is common in diabetic patients. Serum electrolytes should be checked regularly in diabetic patients irrespective of their purpose of admission.