Left ventricular diastolic abnormalities in diabetes mellitus I in relation to cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy and retinopathy

In this study the authors evaluated left ventricular performance in two groups of type I diabetes, with or without autonomic neuropathy, using the pulsed Doppler echocardiographic method. They also evaluated the eventual presence of retinopathy in these groups. A significant left ventricular performance alteration was observed only in the first group (with autonomic neuropathy) in particular concerning the diastolic phase. In this group they found a significant correlation with the presence of retinopathy (p<0.01), in contrast to the second group, which had a lower incidence of retinopathy. It is possible to presume that diabetic patients with autonomic neuropathy had, as compared with a similar group without this feature, more nerve damage and also greater vascular damage, which can be expressed by the more significant presence of retinopathy and alteration of the left ventricular diastolic phase.