Coronary heart disease in young Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients with and without diabetic nephropathy: incidence and risk factors

Abstract
Fifty-nine Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients with (group I) and 59 patients without nephropathy (group II) pair-matched according to sex (30 males and 29 females), age (33 years, range 15–48) and diabetes duration (19 years, range 6–42) were followed for a period of 10 years from about 5 years before to 5 years after onset of proteinuria. The cumulative incidence of coronary heart disease was estimated, and blood pressure and serum cholesterol were followed. Within six years after onset of proteinuria the cumulative incidence of coronary heart disease was increased eight-fold in group I (40%) compared with group II (5%), (ppppp<0.05) than patients without coronary heart disease. Thus, patients developing clinical nephropathy have a highly increased incidence of coronary heart disease compared with patients not developing nephropathy. Patients who developed coronary heart disease were characterized by higher blood pressure and serum cholesterol.