CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ISCHEMIC STROKE IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETES MELLITUS

To investigate the clinical characteristics of ischemic stroke and its associa- \ntions with hypertension, obesity, hyperlipidemia, and diabetic microangiopathy in patients \nwith diabetes mellitus, we estimated the average period between onset of diabetes and \nischemic stroke, and the incidences of complications. A total of 544 patients with diabetes \nmellitus who were admitted to our hospital over the past 10 years were analyzed, forty of \nwhom were diabetic patients who suffered ischemic stroke as diagnosed by clinical exami- \nnation. As controles, 40 subjects matched for sex, age, and duration of diabetes were \nidentified, one for each patient with ischemic stroke. The average period between onset of \ndiabetes and ischemic stroke was significantly shorter for patients with hypertension than \nfor normotensive patients ; however, there were no differences in the length of this period \nbetween the groups with and without obesity or hyperlipidemia. Hypertension was present \nin 63% of patients with ischemic stroke, and the incidence of hypertension was significantly \nhigher in the stroke group than in the control group. There was no difference between the \ngroups with and without ischemic stroke with respect to the incidence of obesity, hyper- \nlipidemia, retinopathy and nephropathy. We conclude that diabetic patients with hyperten- \nsion appear to be at high risk for ischemic stroke.