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RADIOLOGICALLY DEMONSTRABLE ARTERIAL CALCIFICATION IN DIABETES MELLITUS
Author(s) -
FERRIER T. M.
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
australasian annals of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0571-9283
DOI - 10.1111/imj.1964.13.3.222
Subject(s) - medicine , calcification , diabetes mellitus , incidence (geometry) , cardiology , gangrene , surgery , endocrinology , physics , optics
Summary A radiological study of the lower limbs of 250 diabetics and 250 controls has shown that medial arterial calcification at the knee and foot level is some two and a half times more frequent in the diabetic group. The incidence of intimal calcification at the knee level was higher in the diabetic group, but the difference was not statistically significant. Intimal calcification was not seen in the small arteries of the feet. In the diabetic group, there was correlation between the incidence of medial arterial calcification in the feet and the incidence of medial arterial calcification at the knee, but not with the incidence of intimal calcification at the knee. The incidence of arterial calcification in the feet of the diabetics bore a definite relationship to increasing patient age, sex (males being more affected), duration of the diabetes in the under‐fifty‐years age group, the presence of retinopathy and the incidence of gangrene. There was no correlation with the severity of, or control of, the diabetes. In a small group of non‐diabetic patients showing advanced arterial calcification in the feet, fasting blood sugar levels were slightly higher than in a control group, but response to a sugar load was similar. This did not support the hypothesis that advanced arterial calcification in arteries of the feet was a manifestation of the prediabetic state.