Morphological changes in autonomic ganglionic cells of the heart in diabetic patients.

To clarify the histological changes of the cardiac autonomic nervous system in diabetes mellitus, ganglionic cells of the hearts of autopsy cases were examined light microscopically. In 7 severely diabetic patients, the ganglionic neurons showed cellular contraction, cytoplasmic condensation and poor staining of Nissl substance. As neuronal alterations were obvious neither in the mild diabetic patients nor in the non-diabetic patients, these alterations therefore seemed to correlate with diabetes mellitus. The neuronal changes did not seem to correlate with major coronary arterial atherosclerotic narrowing.