[HDL-cholesterol in diabetes mellitus. Analysis of type of diabetes, therapy, duration of disease and metabolic control (author's transl)].

Plasma lipid and HDL-cholesterol concentrations were analyzed in 261 patients with type I (n = 90) and type II (n = 171) diabetes mellitus and related to the type of diabetes, therapy, metabolic control and duration of disease. Although atherosclerotic lesions are significantly increased in diabetics, HDL-cholesterol values were significantly lowered only in females with type II diabetes as compared with the controls. Type II diabetes on insulin therapy exhibited significantly elevated HDL-cholesterol values as compared with diabetics treated by diet or by diet and oral hypoglycaemic agents. This seems of particular interest since the latter two groups showed significantly better metabolic control--evaluated by HbA1--than the insulin-treated type II diabetics. No correlation was found between metabolic control (HbA1) and HDL-cholesterol values in patients with type I or type II diabetes mellitus. Duration of disease did not have any influence on HDL-cholesterol in type I or type II diabetics. In conclusion, HDL-cholesterol does not seem to be a suitable indicator for assessing the well-known risk of late atherosclerotic complications in diabetes mellitus.