Studies of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in minority populations provide researchers with an opportunity to evaluate PAD risk factors and disease severity under different types of conditions. Examination 1 of the Strong Heart Study (1989-1992) provided data on the prevalence of PAD and its risk factors in a sample of American Indians. Participants (N = 4,549) represented 13 tribes located in three geographically diverse centers in the Dakotas, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Participants in this epidemiologic study were aged 45-74 years; 60% were women. Using the single criterion of an ankle brachial index less than 0.9 to define PAD, the prevalence of PAD was approximately 5.3% across centers, with women having slightly higher rates than men. Factors significantly associated with PAD in univariate analyses for both men and women included age, systolic blood pressure, hemoglobin A1c level, albuminuria, fibrinogen level, fasting glucose level, prevalence of diabetes mellitus, and duration of diabetes. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to predict PAD for women and men combined. Age, systolic blood pressure, current cigarette smoking, pack-years of smoking, albuminuria (micro- and macro-), low density lipoprotein cholesterol level, and fibrinogen level were significantly positively associated with PAD. Current alcohol consumption was significantly negatively associated with PAD. In American Indians, the association of albuminuria with PAD may equal or exceed the association of cigarette smoking with PAD.

Aims. The incidence of retinal, renal and cardiovascular complications and their relation to baseline risk factors was documented in this follow-up study of 10 of the 14 original centres of the WHO Multinational Study of Vascular Disease in Diabetes (WHO MSVDD). Methods. The incidence of specified items of vascular disease and some associated risk factors was ascertained after 7 to 9 years (11±12 years in Oklahoma, USA) follow-up, re-using baseline examination methodology in 3165 patients (66.9 %) and, through secondary information in 717 (15.2 %) of the 4729 original patients, of whom 540 (11.4 %) had died and 307 (6.5 %) were untraceable. Results. During follow-up, approximately one third of the patients developed hypertension and one third started insulin. Coronary heart disease incidence varied 10 to 20-fold among centres as did limb amputation rates. Inter-centre differences in incident retinopathy and severe visual impairment were smaller but incident clinical proteinuria and renal failure varied markedly. Vascular disease incidence of all categories was high in Native Americans though coronary heart disease incidence was relatively low in Pima Indians and absolutely low in Hong Kong and Tokyo patients. Specific vascular events and their relation with baseline risk factors are analysed in accompanying papers, summarised in the Epilogue. Conclusion/interpretation. These 10 centres reported very different incidence rates of vascular complications. Observer variation, selection biases and competing causes of mortality contributed to these differences but their validity is supported by the more objective outcome indicators. The following papers also suggest that baseline factors such as raised arterial pressure, cholesterol and fasting glucose (in the centres where it was measured) were important and potentially reversible predictors of risk. [Diabetologia (2001)

Aims/hypothesis. We aimed to estimate incidences of any retinopathy and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) by direct ophthalmoscopy and relate them to baseline risk factors in re-examined diabetic survivors from 10 centres of the WHO Multinational Study of Vascular Disease in Diabetes. Methods. After a mean follow-up of 8.4 years (11.7 years in Oklahoma), 2877 (71.6 %) survivors were resubmitted to standardised direct ophthalmoscopy as at baseline. The presence of any retinopathy and PDR were recorded at each centre and their incidence estimated in those without retinopathy and PDR at baseline. The independent associations of these incidences with baseline risk factors are expressed as odds ratios derived from multiple logistic regression analyses, within individual centres (which included fasting plasma glucose in 8 and triglyceride in 5) and in pooled data. Results. Of the 4662 original patients, 465 (10.4 %) of those without and 77 (43.0 %) of those with baseline PDR had died (p < 0.001). Any retinopathy was newly reported at follow-up in 47.7 % and PDR in 9.7 % of those free of them at baseline, with reported incidences varying substantially among centres. Incident retinopathy appeared earlier in the known course of diabetes but incidence rates rose more slowly with duration in patients with Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus than in those with Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. In pooled data and in some individual centres, any retinopathy incidence gave significantly positive odds ratios with age, diabetes duration, systolic pressure, plasma cholesterol, BMI, insulin treatment and proteinuria, and with fasting plasma glucose in the centres where it was measured. Positive odds ratios for PDR were similarly obtained for age, duration, insulin treatment, cholesterol, proteinuria and fasting glycaemia. Smoking status odds ratios were negative for both outcomes. Conclusion/interpretation. Incidence of ophthalmoscopically ascertained any retinopathy varied about twofold and of PDR about threefold among centres. Although, in part attributable to differences between observers, variation in incidence in all centres and in some cases within centres was associated with a number of baseline risk factors. Such associations are not likely due to observer variation or selection biases and emerged despite the imprecision of clinical ophthalmoscopy. Improved detection and control of these risk factors should reduce the impact of diabetic retinopathy and its consequences. [Diabetologia (2001)

We compare the prevalence of vascular disease and associated risk factors in a Chinese diabetic cohort with the results from the WHO Multinational Study of Vascular Disease in Diabetes (WHO MSVDD) which involved 14 centres from 13 countries [3]. Results. Compared with the WHO MSVDD centres, the Chinese cohort was slightly older, had a shorter duration of known diabetes and had fewer insulintreated patients. Arterial pressure, total blood cholesterol and body mass index were substantially lower. Large vessel disease rate for age, sex and duration adjusted data (17.9 %) was about half that of the combined WHO MSVDD centres (33.5 % p < 0.001). However, retinopathy (47.4 % vs 35.8 % p < 0.001) and proteinuria (57.1 vs 24.9 % p < 0.001) rates were significantly higher. Conclusion/interpretation. Relatively low arterial pressures and blood cholesterol are likely contributors to the notably low arterial disease rates in this Chinese diabetic cohort; they reflect low rates in the Chinese mainland general population and resemble the Tokyo and Hong Kong centres of the WHO MSVDD. The high rates of retinopathy and proteinuria could relate to later diagnosis, degree of hyperglycaemia and/or increased susceptibiltiy to microangiopathy. [Diabetologia (2001) Methods

Diabetes accounts for one third or more of all new end stage renal disease in the United States and accounts for at least 16 % of all new patients going onto renal replacement therapy in Europe [1]. The most common cause of end stage renal disease in diabetes is diabetic glomerulosclerosis (nephropathy).Previous studies have shown that hyperglycaemia is an important risk factor for diabetic renal disease [2,3]. More controversy exists on the extent to which systolic blood pressure and lipid disturbances are risk factors for renal disease rather than being a consequence of it. Data on risk factors for renal disease in prospective studies of diabetes are sparse. The Diabetologia (2001) Results. In 959 subjects with Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus and 2559 with Type II (noninsulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus, the average follow-up was 8.4 years ( 2.7). By the end of the follow-up period 53 patients in the Type I diabetic group and 134 patients in the Type II diabetic group had developed renal failure (incidence rate 6.3:1000 person years). Increasing age and duration of diabetes were associated with renal failure in Type II and Type I diabetes. In Type II diabetes duration of diabetes was a more important risk factor than age. In both Type I and Type II diabetic retinopathy and proteinuria were strongly associated with renal failure. Systolic blood pressure was associated with renal failure in Type I but not in Type II diabetic patients. ECG abnormalities at baseline, self-reported smoking and cholesterol were not associated with renal failure. Triglycerides were measured in a subset of centres. Among those with Type II, but not Type I diabetes, triglycerides were associated with renal failure independently of systolic blood pressure, proteinuria or retinopathy. In Type II diabetes fasting plasma glucose was associated with renal failure independently of other risk factors. Conclusion/interpretation. We have confirmed the role of proteinuria and retinopathy as markers of renal failure and the importance of hyperglycaemia in renal failure in Type I and Type II diabetes. Plasma triglycerides seem to be an important predictor of renal failure in Type II diabetes. In Type I diabetes systolic blood pressure is an important predictor of renal failure. [Diabetologia (2001)