Hand gangrene in diabetic patients on chronic dialysis

To determine whether any potentially reversible variables are related to the development of hand gangrene in diabetic patients on dialysis, the authors compared 15 patients with hand gangrene (group A) to three control groups of diabetics on dialysis: 20 patients with foot gangrene (group B); 31 patients without gangrene of the extremities (group C); and 20 patients without hand arterial calcifications (group D). All patients in groups A-C had medial arterial calcifications of the hands. Group A patients started dialysis at an earlier age (p less than 0.05), were treated for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) for a longer time period (p less than 0.05), and had a lower mean serum albumin concentration during the dialysis period (p less than 0.05) than the patients in the control groups. Hand gangrene also appeared to be associated with the presence of a functioning arterio-venous fistula in the extremity with the gangrene, with loss of function of renal transplant, and with hyperaluminemia. Other variables, including serum parathormone, were not different for the four groups. Logistic regression showed that the following were risk factors for hand gangrene: hypoalbuminemia, long duration of ESRD treatment, hyperphosphatemia, high insulin dose, hypercholesterolemia, and hypoglycemia. In diabetics on dialysis, gangrene develops in hands with medial arterial calcifications, but does not correlate with measures of calcium or phosphorous metabolism. Predictors of hand gangrene include certain potentially reversible clinical and biochemical variables.