Association between retinopathy and impaired peripheral arterial circulation in insulin-dependent diabetic patients.

This study was undertaken to investigate whether, in insulin-dependent diabetic patients, an association exists between microangiopathy (evaluated as retinopathy) and macroangiopathy (evaluated as impaired arterial circulation of the lower limbs). A total of 38 diabetic outpatients with either background (n = 25) or proliferative (n = 13) retinopathy, plus 18 diabetic outpatients of similar age (46.8 +/- 13.