A clinical study of dermatoses in diabetes to establish its markers

Cutaneous manifestations of diabetes mellitus generally appear subsequent to the development of the disease, but they may be the first presenting signs and in some cases they may precede the primary disease manifestation by many years.

The aim of our study was to study the spectrum of dermatoses in diabetics, to know the frequency of dermatoses specific to diabetes mellitus (DM), and to establish the mucocutaneous markers of DM.

The study was conducted at a diabetic clinic and our department between September 2008 and June 2010. Two hundred and twenty-four diabetic patients were included in the study group and those with gestational diabetes were excluded. Healthy age- and sex-matched individuals were taken as controls.

The male to female ratio was 1 : 1.21. Type 2 DM was seen in 89.7% and type 1 DM in 10.3% of the patients. Dermatoses were seen in 88.3% of the diabetics compared to 36% in non-diabetic controls (P<0.05). Cutaneous infections were the most common dermatoses followed by acanthosis nigricans and xerosis in diabetics. Type 2 DM was found to have an increased risk of complications than type 1 DM. Complications of diabetes were seen in 43.7% of the diabetic cases. Diabetic dermopathy, loss of hair over the legs, diabetic foot ulcer, and so on, were found to be the cutaneous markers of DM in our group of cases.

Dermatoses were more common in diabetics than non-diabetics. Cutaneous infections formed the largest group of dermatoses in DM.