Vascular disease in the lower limb in type 1 diabetes

This review considers peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in the diabetic ischaemic lower limb including both macrovascular and microvascular aspects. The presentation of PAD is probably not significantly different in type 1 compared with type 2 diabetes. PAD in diabetic patients is diffuse and located distally being most severe in the crural and also the foot arteries. It is associated with arterial calcification and occlusion of the arteries rather than stenosis. Compared with the nondiabetic patient, PAD develops at a younger age, and women are equally affected as men. It is not known whether the presentation of ischaemic lower limb disease in diabetes can be explained by one disease, namely, atherosclerosis, which has particular features peculiar to diabetes such as distal arterial involvement, or by the occurrence of two separate diseases: first, classical atherosclerosis and, second, a diabetic macroangiopathy, a term for nonatherosclerotic arterial disease in diabetes that is characterized by medial arterial calcification. Furthermore, there is controversy with regard to the significance of structural changes in the microcirculation of the diabetic foot.