Estimation of Serum Cortisol in Type-2 Diabetic Patients under Control

Background: Cortisol is a steroid hormone, in the glucocorticoid class of hormones that functions to increase blood sugar through gluconeogenesis. Diabetogenic hormones such as cortisol play a role in the complications of diabetes mellitus and abnormally high cortisol exerts anti-insulin effect that leads to reduction in insulin sensitivity which is a major factor contributing to development of type2 diabetes mellitus. Aim: This study aimed at evaluating the serum level of Cortisol in type-2 diabetes mellitus patients. Materials and Methods: Samples from thirty (30) confirmed drug treated type2 diabetic subjects attending clinic at federal teaching hospital Abakaliki and fifteen (15) non-diabetic volunteers were analyzed of serum cortisol level using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. The data generated was analyzed using statistical software IBM SPSS version 20.0. The results were expressed as mean+ SEM. Data from this study was analyzed using T-paired test analysis. Results and Discussion: This study showed that the serum cortisol level was normal and had no significant difference (p=0.13) in treated type2 diabetic subjects (2.94+0.73nmol/l) compared to that of the control subjects (1.83+0.06). Also, the mean levels of serum cortisol in comparison with the duration of treatment showed that type2 diabetic subjects with treatment duration of 1-2years showed higher significant difference (P=0.03) in their mean levels of cortisol (2.51+0.54) compared to subjects with treatment duration of 6-10years (0.82+0.05). Conclusion: Serum cortisol level in a well drug treated type2 diabetic subjects was observed to be normal with an inverse correlation with duration of treatment.