Risk factors of cerebro-cardiovascular disorders in mild diabetes

The previous history of maturity onset diabetics is often difficult to piece together since most of the patients, being asymptomatic in the early stages, are not predisposed to undergo routine examinations. We made a prognostic study of such asymptomatic mild diabetics in order to examine the relationship between diabetes and cerebro-cardiovascular disorders. The subjects consisted of 5,170 individuals who had undergone biennial routine examinations at the Nagasaki RERF since 1958. Of these, 424 persons were diagnosed during the follow-up period as having diabetes. Eliminating those receiving insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents, there were 392 patients. It is shown that 49% of these mild diabetics died from cerebro-cardiovascular disorders. The mortality rate for mild asymptomatic diabetics due to CVD and CHD was significantly higher than that for non-diabetics. To elucidate the risk factors of these disorders, we studied the effects of age, blood pressure (BP), serum total cholesterol (TC), relative body weight and four other factors. In CVD as well as in CHD, age and systolic blood pressure were the major risk factors of statistical significance. It was also noted that diabetes, however mild, was an important factor. Consequently, Bp is felt to be the greatest of the four risk factors above, and the maintenance of normal BP as well as glucose control is important even in mild asymptomatic diabetics.