Cardiovascular complications of diabetes mellitus

Abstract

An analysis of cardiovascular complications in 349 diabetics is presented. An incidence of 21.7% for coronary disease, 27.8% for hypertension, 5.7% for cerebral vascular lesions, and 5.7%/0 for diabetic nephropathy was found. The male-to-female sex ratio was 1.7:1, 1.2:1, 1.3:1, and 1.3:1 respectively The lower incidence of these complications as compared with most of the published reports is pointed out. Its significance in view of lack of treatment in the vast majority of diabetics in the present series is discussed. Differences in relation to sex incidence are compared with observations made by previous workers. It is difficult to support the widely held view that coronary heart disease occurs at an earlier age in diabetics. © 1961, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.