Introduction:

the prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities generated by Diabetes Mellitus is unknown globally in Colombia and is further unknown locally.

Objective:

to determine the prevalence of cardiovascular events according to the levels of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), at the University Hospital of Santander.

Material and Method:

a cross-sectional, retrospective analytical observational study with patients from the internal medicine service of the University Hospital of Santander in 2013.

Results:

the prevalence of diabetes was 3l.2% (HbA1c>6.5%); of these 52.2% were women and the majority (70.45%) received pharmacological treatment. Although acute myocardial infarction (10.9%) was the most frequent event, the frequency of the different cardiovascular events as a reason for consultation was not related to any level of HbA1c. However, HbA1c> 9% in patients> 65 years had a risk of stroke, but without statistical significance. Among patients with HbA1c> 9%, 62.02% received <4 doses / day of medication (p = 0.000), with a high prevalence of in-hospital death (88%) with an OR of 2.08 (95% CI: 0.85-5.1; p = 0.107). It was found in the exploratory analysis with some relevant independent variables certain predictive behavior of HbA1c levels not so high <9% (AROC 0.67) and others, for in-hospital death (AROC 0.7).

Conclusions:

in the population analyzed, the prevalence of cardiovascular events in the population with HbA1c >6.5% was 3l.06%; the category HbA1c> 9% was associated with greater in-hospital death; HbA1c <9% was associated with a higher dose of tablets for treatment. (Acta Med Colomb 2018; 43: 74-80).