Systolic time intervals in diabetes.

The systolic time intervals at rest of 16 Type 1 (insulin-dependent) and 30 Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) otherwise healthy adult diabetic patients selected from primary health care clinics were compared with those of age- and sex-matched normal subjects by paired analysis. There was no significant difference in prevalence of smoking, body mass index, fasting serum cholesterol or mean blood pressure between the diabetic and control groups. Mean rate-corrected pre-ejection period (diabetic patients: 132.7 +/- 2.1 ms, normal subjects: 134.6 +/- 3.5 ms (+/- SEM), left ventricular ejection time (diabetic patients: 413.9 +/- 3.0 ms, normal subjects: 421.5 +/- 4.7 ms) electromechanical systole (diabetic patients: 544.9 +/- 2.5 ms, normal subjects: 548.0 +/- 3.5 ms) and pre-ejection period/left ventricular ejection time ratio (diabetic patients: 0.36 +/- 0.01, normal subjects: 0.34 +/- 0.01) were not significantly different between the two groups (p greater than 0.05) and systolic time intervals did not correlate with duration of diabetes or type of treatment. Thus, we did not detect subclinical cardiomyopathy in healthy diabetic patients by this technique. However, a statistically significant skew in the distribution of systolic time intervals in the diabetic group (p less than 0.025) suggests the possibility of an 'at risk' population in which a more sensitive technique might demonstrate impaired ventricular performance.