Skin lesions in diabetes mellitus: prevalence and clinical correlations

With the aim to assess the prevalence and the main clinical correlations of skin lesions in diabetes mellitus, 457 diabetic subjects consecutively attending an outpatient clinic underwent a dermatological examination. Neurovascular foot lesions were excluded. Thirty-five of 64 IDDM patients (54%) had skin alterations mainly consisting of vitiligo (9% of all patients), psoriasis (9%) and eczema (8%). The most frequent skin lesions observed in 240/393 NIDDM subjects (61%) were represented by infections (20% of all patients) and diabetic dermopathy (12.5%), while other lesions were not common. NIDDM patients with skin infections had a worse metabolic control, and those with diabetic dermopathy had a greater prevalence of neuropathy and large vessel disease than patients without skin lesions. These data show that the prevalence of skin diseases in a large, unselected diabetic population is higher than expected and indicate that, in most cases, a careful dermatological examination and a better metabolic control are needed in order to improve quality of life in these patients.