The heart in diabetes mellitus. Part I. Biochemical basis for myocardial dysfunction.

The heart in acutely diabetic animals is subject to multiple inhibitions of glucose metabolism caused by enhanced metabolism of free fatty acids (FFA) and ketone bodies. Such metabolic changes may impair the reaction of the diabetic heart to oxygen lack. In chronically diabetic hearts the increased deposition of triglycerides in the heart and the formation of glycoproteins may underlie the newly recognized clinical entity of diabetic cardiomyopathy.