[The absence of characteristics lesions in the microcirculation of non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients]. / Ausencia de lesiones características en la microcirculación de pacientes diabéticos no insulino-dependientes.

Diabetic cardiomyopathy apparently has an important role in the increased cardiovascular morbi-mortality of diabetic patients and its cause is likely to be secondary to small vessel disease. We undertook the present study to compare small and large vessel disease in hearts of patients who died with coronary disease, and determine how diabetes and/or hypertension correlates with these findings. The paraffin blocks of 52 hearts were used in this study. Cases were selected if they died from coronary artery disease and excluded if they had a previous angioplasty, revascularization surgery, congenital, rheumatic or other causes of heart disease. They were divided in two groups; diabetics and non-diabetics and each group was subdivided in hypertensives an non hypertensives. They were matched by age and sex. DM duration was 11 +/- 6 years and known hypertension of 10 +/- 4 years with no significant differences between both groups. The results were recorded without knowledge of patients clinical findings. Atherosclerotic heart disease was more advanced in DM patients, with an increased prevalence of three vessels disease, and more extensive myocardial infarctions. Diabetic subjects had increased (non significant) basal membrane thickening of the capillaries. We could not find differences in parenchymal hypertrophy, interstitial edema, proliferative endothelial lesions and luminal width in middle and large size vessels. Hypertensive patients had increased perivascular fibrosis (NS). Our results suggest that advanced atherosclerotic heart disease is more common in diabetic patients and diabetic cardiomyopathy, if present, seems not to related to a particular structural microvascular disease.