Diabetes, Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease-An Unsolved Enigma

Diabetes is a major public health problem that is approaching epidemic proportions globally. Worldwide the prevalence of chronic, non-communicable diseases is increasing at an alarming rate. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the major causes of mortality in persons with diabetes, and many factors, including hypertension, contribute to this high prevalence of CVD. Hypertension is approximately twice as frequent in patients with diabetes compared with patients without the disease. Conversely, recent data suggest that hypertensive persons are more predisposed to the development of diabetes than are normotensive persons. Co-existence of diabetes mellitus and hypertension increases the risk of macro- and micro-vascular complications. In this review attempt has been made to explore the risk factors which can be helpful to prevent hyperglycemia and related manifestation of Type 2 diabetes. Both biochemical and genetic diagnostic markers identified till now have been catalogued to describe the status of pathogenesis in hyperglycemic subjects.

Keywords: Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, Hypertension, Biochemical risk factors, Genetic susceptibility.