Background:
@EN Several lines of evidence suggested that different pathogenic mechanisms are involved in the development of so called microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes mellitus. In particular, it has long been suspected that the
development
of retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy depends on the duration and the severity of the disease, while that or coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease does not. However the relation between the duration of diabetes and the
prevalence
of
various complications of Korean diabetic patients in not conclusive.
@ES Method:
@EN Five hundred twenty patients with noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus who visited the Diabetic Clinic of Asan Medical Center during the period from May 1989 to June 1990 were included in the study. By a premade protocol, the presence of
various
complications were determined, and the relation between the age duration of diabetes and the prevalence of each complication was investigated.
@ES Results:
@EN 1) The prevalence of so called microvascular complications, i.e., retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy, increased sharply as the duration of diabetes increased. In contrast, the prevalence of macrovascular complications increased as the
age,
but
not the duration of diabetes, increased.
2) The association between the three imicrovascular complications were statistically significant each other, while that between the micro and macrovascular complications were not significant.
@ES Conclusion:
@EN Our results are consistent with the view that different pathogenic mechanisms are involved in the development of micro-and macrovascular complications of diabetes mellitus. It is suggested that retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy are real
complications of diabetes mellitus, in the sense that it is caused by the metabolic disturbances of diabetes per se. In contrast, coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease appear to be caused by metabolic disturbances closely associated
with
diabetes, but not by diabetes itself
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