Cardiovascular Risk Factors among Libyan Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Attending Tripoli Children Teaching Hospital (2021)

Diabetes mellitus is associated with complications, and carries a significant premature mortality risk. Cardiovascular disease riskfactors are more common in children with T1DM than in the general pediatric population. Risk factors are dyslipidemia, obesityand hypertension contribute to CVD risk in patients with T1DM.To determine cardiovascular disease risk factors among children and adolescent aged less than 20 years with diabetes andestimate the effect of type I diabetes mellitus on cardiovascular system.A cross-sectional study carried out on children with type 1 diabetes mellitus attending endocrine clinic in Tripoli ChildrenTeaching Hospital from 1st of June to 31st of August 2021. The data was encoded and analyzed by SPSS version 22.This study was included 100 children. The most frequent age was between 11 to 15 years accounted for 68% while 23% werebetween 16 to 20 years and 9% were between 5 to 10 years. 58% of patients were females. The diabetes duration was between5 to 9 years accounted 51%. Nearly half of patients had uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (HbA1C. Mean HbA1C was 8.825 ±2.046 SD. 45% of patients had received multiple daily insulin injections, 13% on flexible insulin regimen while 42% on insulinpump. Statistically significant results were reported between control of diabetes and method of therapy (P-value = 0.005).Majority of patients had normal body mass index while 21% were overweight and obese and 7% were underweight. 70% ofpatients were normotensive while 30% of them had hypertension. Only 4% of patients had hypothyroidism. 3% had high LDL(P-value = 0.003), 67% had high HDL, 8% had high TG and 5% had high cholesterol level (P-value = 0.000). Only one patienthad retinopathy while 10% had mild nephropathy and 9% had moderate nephropathy. One patient had 1st degree heart block, onepatient had flat T-wave and one patient had left ventricular hypertrophy on ECG.17% of patients had abnormal echocardiogram;65.7% of them had uncontrolled diabetes. All patients had normal ejection fraction.Conclusion: Type 1 DM among children and adolescents had several cardiovascular risks such as high LDL, TG and cholesterollevel, hypertension and cardiovascular abnormalities; all these factors related to uncontrolled diabetes to some extent.