Vascular complications in relation to ethnicity in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ethnicity on the development of diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy as markers for microvascular complications and of angina pectoris as a marker for macrovascular complications. We evaluated data from 1124 patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) of Caucasian, Mongoloid, Asian, Armenian, Northern African and Negroid origin who were referred between January 1993 and December 1994. Logistic regression analyses showed that the occurrence of microvascular complications was significantly associated with duration of NIDDM. In addition, retinopathy was significantly associated with glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and nephropathy with triglycerides (P < 0.05 and P < < 0.001 respectively). Northern African origin was associated with retinopathy (P < 0.05) and Asian origin with nephropathy (P < 0.005). Macrovascular complication was associated with age and triglyceride level (P < 0.001 and P < 0.05 respectively). Northern African and Negroid ethnicity exclusively did not show a gradual increase in the risk for angina pectoris with increasing age. Moreover, a negative association between Northern African as well as Negroid ethnicity and macrovascular complication was observed (P = 0.05 and P < 0.05 respectively). In support of these observations, we found a favourable lipid profile in both mentioned groups. In summary, we have shown that, in patients with NIDDM, ethnicity is associated with macrovascular complications and duration of the disease with microvascular complications.