[Infection in diabetes: the relation to the degree of metabolic control and protein malnutrition]

Sixty-one diabetic patients, followed for two years, were divided in two groups for evaluation. One group consisted of the patients who had a bacterial or fungal infection, and the other those in whom no infection had been recorded. The association of the infection with the degree of metabolic control and with the presence or absence of protein malnutrition were assessed. The group of patients with infection was positively correlated with malnutrition and poor metabolic control. In the group with infections, the prevalence of protein malnutrition was 77% while in the patients without infection it was 36%. 11% of patients with sugar blood level lower than 140 mg/dl (7.7 mmol/l) had infections, whereas 79% of those with sugar blood levels higher than 200 mg/dl (11.1 mmol/l) had infections. We emphasize the relevance of hyperglycemia and protein malnutrition as predisposing factors of infection in diabetes and the need to assess the nutritional status in those patients.