Evaluation of Red Blood Cell Indices in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Sulaymaniyah City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Abstract

Background 
 Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) accounts for more than 90% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. Earlier reports described an independent association of haematological indices, such as red blood cells (RBCs), haemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCV), platelet count (Plt), and white blood cell count (WBC) with the risk of occurrence of T2DM.
 Objectives 
 To evaluate the relationship between T2DM and red cell indices.
 Patients and Methods
 The current cross-sectional study recruited 400 patients with T2DM who were referred to the Diabetic Center in Sulaimani city, Northern Iraq, from November 2018 to March 2019 and 200 healthy blood donors who donated from March to April 2019 to the Sulaimani Blood Bank Center. The required data were collected from both groups, and relevant haematological tests and biochemical analyses were performed. 
 Results
 Anemia was found in 8% of the patients giving higher rates among the females. Normocytic anaemia was observed in (82.8%) of the patients. Half of the patients had a high level of RBC counts, which correlates significantly with high HbA1c (p=0.005). The prevalence of pre-diabetic and diabetes was 15.5% among healthy blood donors. Patients with T2DM and donation experience showed lower HbA1c levels than those without blood donation (p<0.05). 
 Conclusion
 Normocytic anaemia is the most common type in patients with T2DM. Patients with a high level of RBC count might be worth screening for T2DM. A high frequency of pre-diabetic and diabetic among asymptomatic healthy blood donors was observed.