Prevalence of severe arteriosclerosis obliterans in patients with diabetes mellitus. Relation to smoking and form of therapy.

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Noninvasive methods were used to determine the prevalence and severity of arteriosclerosis obliterans associated with diabetes in 674 subjects including 153 recruited as controls. A resting ankle systolic blood pressure that was less than 90% of the arm pressure indicated severe arteriosclerosis obliterans. Of the 71 subjects with severe disease, 64 (90%) had a history of smoking, which is significantly greater than the 60% overall smoking rate (p less than 0.001). In non-insulin-dependent diabetic smokers, the diet-treated subjects had 2.5 times the prevalence of severe arteriosclerosis obliterans as those treated with insulin (p = 0.01); the sulfonylurea-treated subjects had twice the prevalence of severe disease as those treated with insulin (p = 0.015).