A Prospective Study to Identify the Prevalence of Impaired Glucose Tolerance in Patients With Liver Cirrhosis Using Oral Glucose Tolerance Test

Introduction Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global health problem that may affect the prognosis of liver cirrhosis by interfering with the various metabolic functions of the body. Hence it is important to know the glycemic status of the patients with liver cirrhosis to anticipate and treat the complications associated with it, which in turn will help in the prognosis. The conventional methods may underestimate impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Hence, this study was undertaken to identify IGT prevalent among liver cirrhosis patients using an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The aim of our study was to identify the prevalence of IGT in non-diabetic liver cirrhosis patients using OGTT. Materials and methods This was a prospective cross-sectional study done in the Department of General Medicine at Shri BM Patil Medical College and Hospital, Vijayapura. After obtaining institutional ethical committee approval, a sample size of 85 liver cirrhosis patients between the age of 20-80 years who were not known cases of diabetes mellitus were selected from patients attending inpatient and outpatient departments at our hospital. The period of study was from January 2021 to June 2022. Patients were tested with OGTT, and the results were recorded. Results Our study found that IGT was more common in the age group of 40-49 years. All the patients included were males. We found that alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis patients had the maximum of IGT and DM. Our study observed a prevalence of 36.47% of patients with IGT. Our study in addition to IGT, found that DM was more common in 30-39 years, and 24.71% of patients were diagnosed with diabetes mellitus in the 85 patients included in our study. Conclusion We conclude that performing OGTT to find the prevalence of IGT and DM in liver cirrhosis patients will help in diagnosing DM and IGT, aiding in the improvement of the prognosis of the cirrhosis. The glycemic status of the patient may help in deferring the complications associated with poor glucose control. The incidence of potential complications of DM can be reduced by prompt identification and treatment.