Incidence and prevalence of clinical peripheral vascular disease in a population-based cohort of diabetic patients.

Clinical peripheral vascular disease (PVD) was studied in an incidence cohort of 1073 residents of Rochester, Minnesota, who were found to have diabetes mellitus in the period 1945-69. About 8% of patients already had clinical evidence of PVD at the time of diagnosis of diabetes. The proportion increased with the age at which diabetes was discovered. Among those unaffected initially, the incidence of subsequent PVD was slightly greater for men, 21.3 per 1000 person-years, than for women, 17.6 per 1000, and it increased both with age and duration of diabetes. The cumulative incidence of subsequent PVD was estimated to be 15% at 10 yr and 45% at 20 yr after the diagnosis of diabetes. The age-adjusted prevalence of residents with diabetes and a history of PVD was 3.3 per 1000 population 30 yr of age or over on 1 January 1970.