[Mechanisms of development of diabetic macroangiopathy]

Pieces of the aorta and heart coronary arteries taken at autopsy of 100 patients who had died of insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus were studied histologically and immunohistologically. Atherosclerosis was more pronounced in diabetes mellitus patients than in patients with normal glycemic indices. Atherosclerosis was most severe in non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Diabetic microangiopathy of the vasa vasorum of large arteries promotes development of atherosclerosis.