Changes in the nature of the disease in patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus — representatives of the civilian population after a long stay in the combat zone

Abstract

Background. In modern conditions, an acute problem in medicine is the issue of a negative impact of war on the course of chronic noncommunicable diseases. The most common of them are hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus, which in most cases occur as a comorbidity. To date, a certain amount of work has been carried out to study the influence of war and chronic wartime stress on the development and progression of hypertension. However, the features of the course of hypertension and type 2 diabetes in case of their combination during a long-term stay of patients in combat zones remain unstudied. The purpose: to study changes in the nature of the disease course in patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes — representatives of the civilian population after a long stay in the combat zone of the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. Materials and methods. Sixty-five patients (civilians) with hypertension and type 2 diabetes (30 men, 35 women) aged from 47 to 64 years were examined. All of them were examined before the start of the war and 4–5 months after staying in the combat zone. Results. In hypertensive patients with type 2 diabetes after their stay in a combat zone, hypertension became more severe (in 89 % of cases, it was uncontrolled, the frequency of hypertensive crisis and resistant hypertension increased significantly). In addition, a significant increase in the frequency of decompensation of carbohydrate metabolism was detected. The examined patients showed a progression of lipid metabolism disorders and the development of new cases of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Conclusions. There was a pronounced negative impact of long-term stay of patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes in a combat zone on the course of both hypertension and diabetes, which was associated with a significant increase in the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.