Later complications on diabetic patients: nephropathies in necropsy material.

The purpose of the present study was to analyze in detail the kidney lesions of diabetic patients. Revision of the histopathologic aspects of this nephropathy was performed, seeking to approach the pathophysiology of its formation. In 200 consecutive necropsies of cadavers of diabetic patients examined at the Pathology Department of the Medical School of the São Paulo University, some degree of nephropathy was found in 158 cases. The slides from paraffin sections of these cases were reviewed according to a morphologic protocol previously established. Diffuse, nodular and mixed glomerulosclerosis were encountered in 42.2%, 21.5% and 5.7% respectively. Subcapsular drop and exudative lesion appeared in 12.7% and 15.2% of the cases. We also encountered arteriosclerosis in 81.6%, arteriolosclerosis in 88.6%, necrotizing papillitis in 11.4% and acute and chronic pyelonephritis in 23.4% and 20.9% respectively. We concluded that glomerular and vascular hyalin alterations were the most frequent findings in diabetic patients.

Study in necropsy material of "cause-specific mortality" in diabetics, in São Paulo-Brasil.

Specific causes of death in diabetic patients was studied in retrospective work from necropsies performed at the Medicine School of the University of São Paulo from 1931 until 1989. From 145,043 necropsies, 813 indexed cases were found: 449 females (55.2%) and 364 males (44.8%). The race ratio of patients was: 584 (71.8%) white, 208 (25.6%) negro and 21 (2.6%) asiatic. The predominant age of death incidence was between the fifth and sixth decades. The main causes reported were infections (42.68%), coma (12.79%), neurologic involvement (11.56%) and cardiac diseases (11.07%); indeterminate causes of death were related in 7.4% of cases. Our results differ from the others of literature mainly in two points: the high prevalence of infectious diseases and the proportional low incidence of cardiopathies. We concluded that, in our casuistic, infectious diseases in diabetic patients represent an important cause of death establishing important clinical parameters for their care.