[Relationship between obesity and atherosclerotic risk in elderly type 2 diabetic patients]

The relationship between obesity and incidence of stroke and ischemic heart disease is known to be weaker in elderly people compared with younger people. The relationships between obesity and atherosclerotic risk factors have been reported to decrease with age in healthy subjects. In order to clarify whether obesity influences atherosclerotic risk factors in elderly diabetic patients, we investigated the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and atherosclerotic risk factors in elderly (65 years or more) patients (61 men and 65 women) with type 2 diabetes mellitus. BMI significantly correlated with blood pressure, serum triglyceride, uric acid and sialic acid concentrations and negatively with duration of diabetes and serum HDL cholesterol concentration. These relationships, except that with serum uric acid concentration, were still significant after adjustment for sex and age. Diabetic subjects with a BMI of 25 or over showed significantly higher arterial pressure and serum triglyceride and sialic acid levels and lower serum HDL cholesterol level compared with diabetic subjects with a BMI of below 22. These results suggest that obesity increases the atherosclerotic risk even at higher ages in diabetic patients and that correction of obesity helps prevention of atherosclerosis in elderly diabetic patients.