The aim of the present study was to examine the intima-media thickness (IMT) and the number of atherosclerotic plaques in the medium-sized arteries of the lower and upper limbs in 65-year-old Finns (45 diabetic subjects, 65 subjects with impaired glucose tolerance [IGT] and 38 normoglycaemic [NGT] subjects). The maximal IMT of radial arteries was higher in subjects with diabetes (0.41 mm±0.07) than in those with IGT (0.36 mm±0.06) or NGT (0.35 mm±0.07) (p<0.001), but in popliteal, tibial and brachial arteries there were no significant differences between the groups. A large proportion of the study population had plaques in their lower limb arteries and some subjects had a very high number of plaques. The proportion of subjects with diabetes in the highest quintile of the number (≥ 79) of tibial plaques was 47%, while the corresponding number was 26% among those with a lower number of plaques (p=0.030). The occurrence of plaques in brachial and radial arteries was low. Diabetic subjects tended to have radial plaques more often than subjects with IGT and NGT.
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