Lipid levels in black South Africans with type 2 diabetes: dispelling misconceptions.

Dyslipidemia in type 2 diabetes typically comprises hypertriglyceridemia and reduced HDL cholesterol, usually associated with hypercholesterolemia (1). Relatively little is known about its occurrence in developing African communities, where the prevalence of type 2 diabetes may escalate dramatically (2). This is important because dyslipidemia constitutes a major risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD) in type 2 diabetes (3). We therefore assessed serum lipids of South African blacks with type 2 diabetes of differing socioeconomic status and compared levels with those of patients two decades earlier. Our initial expectations were that dyslipidemia would be substantially greater in the higher socioeconomic group due to affluence and that lipids would have risen considerably over time because of increasing urbanization. Our low socioeconomic community comprised 445 black African patients (241 women and 204 men) with recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes studied between 1994 and 1996. They attended …