Endocrinology

Two prospective studies reported in 1993 provided an answer to a controversial question: Would intensive treatment of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) reduce the development or progression of microvascular complications? The Stockholm Diabetes Study,¹which began in 1982, involved 102 patients (mean age, 30 years; mean duration of diabetes, 17 years) who were followed up for 7.5 years. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT),²sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md, and conducted at 29 centers in the United States and Canada, involved 1441 patients in two cohorts: a primary prevention group (patients without apparent microvascular complications at entry; mean age, 27 years; mean duration of diabetes, 2.6 years) and a secondary intervention group (patients with mild retinopathy at entry; mean age, 27 years; mean duration of diabetes, 8.7 years); the patients in the DCCT were followed up for an average of 6.5 years.