Clinical features of arteriosclerotic heart disease (ASHD) associated with diabetes were studied.
Those who were studied consisted of 1, 202 diabetics, who were subdivided into 3 groups depending on blood glucose level, seen at the Center for Adult Diseases, Osaka, and 2, 450 control subjects with normal blood glucose level.
The prevalence of hypertension revealed a close relationship to aging and elevation of blood glucose level, giving excessive frequency of hypertension for diabetics. The prevalence of ASHD, however, was largely influenced by aging and elevation of blood pressure, but little by elevation of blood glucose level. Obesity and serum cholesterol level seemed to be little related to the prevalence of ASHD.
To study quantitative relationship between ASHD and other related variables, the partial correlation coefficients were computed. The coefficient was significant at a 5% level between ASHD and systolic blood pressure, so was between ASHD and age. Serum cholesterol level and a two-hour blood glucose level also revealed some correlations with ASHD, although not statistically significant.
The above observations led to a conclusion that the prevalence of ASHD was largely dependent on the presence of hypertension and aging. It was suggested that the clinical features of ASHD of Japanese diabetics were much different from those of diabetics in Western Countries, where carbohydrate metabolism play a more influential role in the development of ASHD.
A discussion was also made on the different patterns of causes of death in diabetics between Japan and Western Countries.