Development of diabetic microangiopathy and diabetic control. A study in non-insulin-dependent diabetics.

The relationship between the development of microangiopathy and the degree of diabetic control was investigated in 61 noninsulin-dependent diabetics after 5-10 years of known duration of diabetes. The degree of diabetic control was assessed by fasting blood glucose (FBG) at the last assessment, haemoglobin A1 (HbA1) and by the mean of all the fasting blood glucose values throughout the follow up (MWFBG). The 29 patients who developed microangiopathy had higher FBG at last assessment (10.1 +/- 0.6 vs 8.2 +/- 0.5 mmol/l, p less than 0.02), HbA1 (13.4 +/- 0.8 vs 11.0 +/- 0.6%, p less than 0.02) and MWFBG (8.0 +/- 0.4 vs 7.5 +/- 0.4 mmol/l, p less than 0.05) than those without microangiopathy. The FBG values at each year of the follow-up were higher in the microangiopathy group. HbA1 determined in 1979 correlated with the mean FBG values of each one of the years 1975-1978 (r = 0.575, r = 0.646, r = 0.657, r = 0.631, p less than 0.001, respectively). These data support the hypothesis that in noninsulin-dependent diabetics the development of microangiopathy is related to the degree of diabetic control.