Prevalence and correlations of early microvascular complications in young type I diabetic patients: Role of puberty

The prevalence and correlates of the early signs of renal, retinal and neurological microvascular complications were evaluated in 317 young patients with type I diabetes mellitus. Microalbuminuria was detected in 11% of patients and appeared to be strongly and positively related to HbA(1c) (p<0.01) and less significantly to duration of diabetes (p<0.02), Retinopathy was detected in 22.7% of patients and it was associated with duration of diabetes (p<0.001), Peripheral neuropathy was detected in 18.5% of patients and there was a strong association with HbA(1c) (p<0.01) and a weaker one with duration of diabetes (p<0.05). Microalbuminuria was not detected in prepubertal patients while a similar frequency of retinopathy and neuropathy was observed in prepubertal and postpubertal patients, These results suggest that: 1) In short-term type I diabetic patients neuropathy is the most frequent microvascular complication, but after 10 years of diabetes, retinopathy exceeds the other complications; 2) Short-term metabolic control may influence the frequency of neuropathy and microalbuminuria but not retinopathy; 3) Puberty is involved in the appearance of microalbuminuria.