Carotid atherosclerosis in young-aged IDDM associated with diabetic retinopathy and diastolic blood pressure.

To determine whether young patients with IDDM already have atherosclerosis and what factors would relate to atherosclerosis, we examined the intimal-medial thickness (IMT) of the common carotid artery by ultrasonography. Subjects were 29 young patients with IDDM (aged 17-39 years, duration 4-31 years) without manifest macroangiopathy and 13 healthy controls of comparable age (22-29 years). The carotid artery IMT of young patients with IDDM were significantly higher than those of controls (0.60 +/- 0.09 vs. 0.46 +/- 0.02 mm, P < 0.0001). The levels of IMT significantly correlated to diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.45, P < 0.02), and were higher in those with proliferative retinopathy than those without retinopathy (0.66 +/- 0.09 vs. 0.55 +/- 0.08 mm, P < 0.02). The levels of IMT showed no significant correlation to the attained age, duration of IDDM, HbA1c, systolic blood pressure, and cholesterol level. These findings suggest the usefulness of this examination for the early detection of diabetic macroangiopathy, and point to a close relationship between microangiopathy and macroangiopathy in IDDM.