Evaluation of Punjabi Diabetic population for thyroid dysfunctioning

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and thyroid diseases are two common endocrinopathies seen in general population (Sathish and Mohan, 2003). DM is a clinical syndrome characterized by hyperglycemia due to the absolute deficiency (type 1 diabetes) or relative deficiency of insulin (type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes). The deficiency of insulin could be due to the genetic defect of and #946;-cell function or insulin, pancreatic diseases, drug induced, viral infections, increased production of hormonal antagonist to insulin and specific syndrome (ADA, 2010). Chronic hyperglycemia might lead to tissue damage by glycation of tissue proteins and other macromolecules and result in excess production of polyol compounds from glucose. According to recent estimates approximately 285 million people world wide (6.6%) in 20-79 year age group are suffering with diabetes in 2010 and this is expected to rise to 438 million (7.8%) by 2030. With an estimated 50.8 million people living with diabetes, India has world s largest diabetes population followed by China (43.2 million) and U.S (26.8 million) respectively in 2010 (Ramachandran et al., 2010).