ORIGINAL ARTICLE Prevalence of diabetic micro vascular complications at a tertiary care unit of Karachi, Pakistan Mujeeb Abro 1,2 & Awn Bin Zafar 3 & Asher Fawwad 4,5 & Nida Mustafa 5 & Bilal Tahir 5 & Musarrat Riaz 3 & Abdul Basit 3 Received: 18 November 2017 /Accepted: 18 July 2018 # Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India 2018 Abstract To determine the prevalence of microvascular complications and associated risk factors among subjects with type 2 diabetes reported at a tertiary care unit of Karachi, Pakistan. This retrospective observational study was carried out in the outpatient department of Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology (BIDE), a tertiary care diabetes center of Karachi from January 2005 to April 2016. Data records of patients with type 2 diabetes at presentation were analyzed. Selected data was extracted from Health Management System (HMS) including basic demographics, anthropometric measurements, biochemical results, medical information, and microvascular complications results. Data analysis was performed on Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Overall, prevalence of at least one microvascular complication was 56.9%, retinopathy 15.8%, nephropathy 31.0%, and neuropathy 48.7% were noted. Male gender, age ≥ 40 years, duration of diabetes > 10 years, obesity, hypertension, HbA1c > 7%, and low HDL were found to be significant risk factors for microvascular complication. Hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia were significantly associated with nephropathy and neuropathy, whereas no significant association of high LDL was found with any complication. High prevalence of microvascular complications was observed among type 2 diabetic subjects visited first time at a tertiary care hospital. Early identification and effective management are required at primary and secondary care levels to combat this situation. Keywords Complication . Retinopathy . Nephropathy . Neuropathy . Diabetes Introduction Diabetes mellitus is an important global health issue as the num- ber of people with diabetes are rising every year, particularly of type 2 diabetes [ 1]. Pakistan had an estimated population of 7.5 million diabetics as of 2017, and this population is predicted to near 16.1 million in 2045 [2]. The recent National diabetes sur- vey of Pakistan is just completed and reports are sent for publi- cation. People with type 2 diabetes mellitus have a considerably higher risk of both macrovascular complications (peripheral vas- cular disease, coronary artery disease, and cerebrovascular dis- ease) and microvascular complications (nephropathy, neuropa- thy, and retinopathy) [3]. These complications result in signifi- cantly high morbidity and mortality. People with long duration of diabetes or uncontrolled disease are usually affected by micro- vascular complications. However, the complications can already be present at the time of diagnosis [4]. The increasing trend in the prevalence of microvascular com- plications of type 2 diabetes has been observed in various epide- miological studies [ 5–8]. Joint Asia Diabetes Evaluation (JADE) reported that in seven countries of Asia, retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy affected 20.4, 15.0, and 7.5% of diabetic sub- jects, respectively [9]. Previous studies identified that the preva- lence of microvascular complications was more common in Asians as compared to Europeans [10, 11] and Caucasians [8]. Data on prevalence rate of microvascular complications in * Asher Fawwad research@bide.edu.pk; asherfawwad@bide.edu.pk 1 Department of Endocrine, Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology, Baqai Medical University, Karachi, Sindh 74600, Pakistan 2 Chandka Medical College, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana, Sindh, Pakistan 3 Department of Medicine, Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology, Baqai Medical University, Karachi, Sindh 74600, Pakistan 4 Department of Biochemistry, Baqai Medical University, Karachi, Sindh 74600, Pakistan 5 Research Department, Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology, Baqai Medical University, Plot No. 1-2, II-B, Nazimabad No2, Karachi 74600, Pakistan International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries https://doi.org/10.1007/s13410-018-0683-5