[Type 2 diabetic patients in a population sample from Ribeirão Preto area (São Paulo)]

To characterize the prevalence of long term diabetic complications (macroangiopathy, retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy) and their possible relation to the degree of metabolic control and duration of diabetes, we studied a hospital-based brazilian population sample of 546 non-insulin dependent diabetic patients. The group was subjected to a standardized evaluation protocol, including clinical characterization of the patients and their disease, current therapy, degree of metabolic control and presence of diabetic complications. The studied sample is of adult age range (25 to 84 years), with mean duration of diabetes of 8.0 +/- 6.8 years. Obesity was observed in 72.6% of the group and 232 patients (43.3%) had diabetics among their relatives. 92 (18.4%) patients have been treated with diet only, whereas 170 (32.6%) also used oral hypoglycemic agents, and 226 (43.7%) were using NPH insulin therapy (81.4% with single daily dose). The mean annual levels of fasting blood glucose (187 +/- 68mg/dl), urine glucose (9.6 +/- 16.7g/day) and glycosylated hemoglobin (12.2 +/- 3.3%) of the group, permitted a classification of the patients in: a) good metabolic control (106 pat. = 19.4%); b) regular control (264 pat. = 48.4%) and c) poor metabolic control (176 pat. = 32.2%). The prevalences of microvascular and neuropathic complications was: retinopathy = 29.1%, nephropathy = 11.3% and neuropathy = 50.9%. The observed increase in the prevalence of the complications was progressive according to the duration of the diabetes. In all time intervals of duration of diabetes, neuropathy was the most frequently observed complication. The prevalence of complications was always higher in the poorly controlled group compared to the patients in good metabolic control.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)