[The heart, the elderly, and diabetes mellitus. Epidemiologic study of 333 ambulatory clinical cases].
The paper proposes a new classification to describe the normal senile heart and its pathological forms: "small aortic heart" (nonhypertrophic-dilatative myocardiopathy and its ischemic form) and "large aortic heart" (hypertrophic-dilatative myocardiopathy and its ischemic form). The statistical distribution of 241 elderly patients with diabetes mellitus using this classification was compared to a control group of 92 elderly non-diabetic subjects. The results reveal the significant epidemiological incidence of ischemic cardiopathy with small aortic heart in diabetic patients compared to the control group in which more ischemic hypertrophic-dilatative cardiopathies were present. This observation supports the hypothesis that senile diabetic cardiopathy begins with a metabolic block with reduced contractile energy, and the overlying important ischemic component leads to the development of the small-size clinical phenotype.
Tamburrini
L R
LR
II Cattedra di Geriatria e Gerontologia, Università degli Studi, Ospedale S. Santorio, Trieste.
Di Monte
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Ponte
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Vriz
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D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*
II cuore, il vecchio, il diabete. Studio epidemiologico di 333 osservazioni cliniche ambulatoriali.