Publication:

A clinical study of diabetic dermatological manifestations at a tertiary care hospital in South India

Background The data on studies like lesions of the skin due to diabetes are scarce. Hence there is a need to conduct more studies on this topic of importance. The objective of the study was to study diabetic dermatological manifestations.

Methods A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out among 100 randomly selected patients during the study period of one year who were having diabetes as well as skin lesions due to diabetes. All diabetic patients were screened for presence of skin lesions. They were further differentiated based on the diagnosis.

Results Out of 73 patients having cutaneous infections 71.2% were having fungal infections. Out of 18 having bacterial infections 38.9% were having furuncles. Out of 52 having fungal infections 63.5% were having dermatophytosis. Out of 14 cases of candidal infections, the most common was intertrigo in 35.7%. Out of 33 cases of dermatophytosis, T. cruris was the most common in 54.5%. Out of 82 patients in whom we suspected dermatoses strongly associated with diabetes the most common condition was pruritus in 36.6% of the cases.

Conclusions Bacterial skin infections and dermatophytosis were the most common diabetic dermatological lesions in the present study.