title: [Detecting diabetes in the coronary patient. How to diagnosis?].
abstract: Type 2 diabetes is one of the most prevalent among the growing chronic diseases menace in the world. The costs associated to its diagnosis, treatment and micro and macrovascular complications are also rising exponentially in the last years. People with diabetes have also longer stays in hospital with increased hospital lethality and with a general increase in morbidity and mortality that represents a reduction in the potential years of life. 10% of the Portuguese health costs are spent in diabetes. Coronary disease is strongly associated to diabetes resulting from coexisting pathological pathways, namely through dyslipidaemia and hypertension. In Portugal 43% of the population with diabetes is not diagnosed representing a population with a high cardiovascular risk not subject to treatment. This late diagnosis and intervention is usually associated with a poorer prognosis for both situations. Healthcare providers should be aware of this association and know the relevance of the different diagnostic tests (fasting glycaemia, occasional glycaemia, oral glucose tolerance test and HbA1c) to be used in acute or chronic settings of coronary disease. With an early diagnosis doctors can initiate a more intensive treatment with more stringent glycaemic goals with significant health gains avoiding the costs associated to late complications of diabetes.
authors.affiliation: Associação Protectora dos Diabéticos de Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal. filipe.raposo@apdp.pt
authors.forename: João Filipe
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Raposo
mesh_terms: D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000150:complications*; D003925:Diabetic Angiopathies / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans