Background: Preliminary investigation done in 100 healthy adults and 20 healthy children had shown that the interpretation of significance of changes in capillary morphology need to be corrected, since capillary changes previously considered to be pathological are also to be found in large numbers in healthy subjects. Against this background, the question has now been investigated whether the capillary microscopic findings in diabetics deviates from those found in normals, and whether the duration of the diabetes, its treatment, its sequelae, or concomitant diseases have any influence on the capillary microscopic appearance.
Patients and methods: In 100 patients aged between 44 and 88 years with type 2 diabetes vital capillary microscopy was carried out on all ten fingers in the usual manner. The evaluation of the video recordings was done only when all the examinations had been completed--by two examiners blinded to the clinical data.
Results: It was shown that 66% of the patients demonstrated pathological capillary microscopic findings. These findings included pathologically increased apical and non-apical dilatations (32%), haemorrhagic extravasations (20%) and branchings (45%). No differences were found between the therapy groups (insulin--oral medication) nor was any relationship between the appearance of capillary changes and the duration of diabetes observed. Diabetics with concomitant diabetic sequelae (polyneuropathy), demonstrated no differences in capillary morphology as compared with diabetics with no such sequelae.
Conclusion: Diabetics are found to have an increased incidence of pathological capillary morphology taking the form of increased apical dilatations, branchings and haemorrhagic extravasations. Neither the treatment, nor the duration of the illness, nor diabetic sequelae appeared to have any influence on the capillary microscopic changes.