Muscle mitochondrial function in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and peripheral arterial disease: implications in vascular surgery.

OBJECTIVES: (1) To review the available information on mitochondrial function in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) obtained by non-invasive phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((31)PMRS), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in vivo and respirometry on mitochondria isolated from muscle biopsies in vitro (2) to evaluate the usefulness of such data in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of these patients. DESIGN: Review. SEARCH STRATEGY: PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed) and manual literature search. MAIN RESULTS: Fifty-three articles were retrieved, which included (31)PMRS, 15, NIRS, 11, Combined, 1 and Respirometry, 2 and background literature, 24. CONCLUSION: Muscle mitochondrial function is impaired in both T2DM and PAD patients, but differently. Patients suffering from both pathological conditions will display more serious impairment of the mitochondrial function. Mitochondrial function and the degree of ischaemic disease as evaluated by (31)PMRS and NIRS are well correlated. The NIRS technique appears to determine the degree of PAD better than (31)PMRS. It is argued that systematic testing of mitochondrial function may be a useful prognostic tool with PAD and T2DM, but clinical studies are needed.