[Vascular diseases and their complications in diabetics--an epidemiological study in 10 Sofia hospitals]

After discovery of insulin, diabetes mellitus from mainly metabolic disease was changed in mainly cardiovascular disease. That is why its vascular complications became the chief problem because of their clinical significance. An epidemiological study was carried out on the causes of death of the patients with diabetes in 10 hospitals in Sofia for the period 1979-1983. The sources of information used were the medical death certificates. The total number of the decreased diabetics in those hospitals, during the above period, is 1810, out of them 855 males and 965 females. Our study revealed that various cardiovascular diseases were established in 96.52% of all diabetics deceased. Atherosclerosis proved to be with the highest incidence--80.88%, followed by that of arterial hypertension--37.5%. They are the main cause for cerebral stroke and myocardial infarctions among the diabetics. The cerebral strokes are the most frequent direct cause for the death--the lethal end in 29.72% of the cases in due to them. Myocardial infarction comes second as a cause for the death of diabetics--21.99% of the subjects had died of it. Diabetic gangrene is also an often cause for the death of the diabetics (5.58% of the cases). The age and sex distribution of all those diseases are discussed in the paper.