The Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus in Sickle Cell Hemoglobinopathies*

Because of the impression obtained from our population with sickle cell anemia that there were no cases of diabetics, a study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in: 1) 186 cases of pregnant black patients with sickle cell disease (HbS-S, S-C, or S-Thal) or HgA-S with random and 2-h postprandial blood glucose (compared to 2263 matched control patients); 2) a study of the hemoglobin pattern in 280 consecutive cases of nonpregnant black patients with confirmed diabetes mellitus in our outpatient clinic; and 3) a review of the records of 711 patients with sickle cell disease in our Sickle Cell Center with performance of a 100-g oral glucose tolerance test on 5 patients with random plasma glucose greater than 120 mg/dl. These studies showed: 1) there were no diabetics in pregnant black patients as compared to a 4% incidence of abnormal glucose tolerance in a control, matched population; 2) there were no cases of sickle cell disease in the diabetic population; and 3) there...