[Tissue oxygenation and tissue hypoxia in diabetes mellitus]

The-Polarographic method was applied to the study of free oxygen tension (PO2) in the subcutaneous cellular tissue and the muscle of the arm in 104 patients suffering from diabetes mellitus without any concomitant pathology of the lungs and in 25 healthy persons. At the period of decompensation of diabetes mellitus (in the patients without any concomitant diseases of the lungs) PO2 was decreased in the subcutaneous cellular tissue by the average of 42% in comparison with the norm, and in the skeletal muscle of the arm--by 38%. The most frequently (and more significant) was tissue hypoxia in complicated diabetes, particularly in ketacidosis. Effective treatment led to an elevation of PO2 in the tissues of the great majority of the patients; in some of the patients it became normal.