Cutaneous manifestations of diabetes mellitus.

One hundred fifty consecutive diabetes mellitus patients attending the endocrinology outpatient department and diabetic clinic constituted the study group. One hundred fifty age and sex matched non diabetics attending the medicine outpatient department were taken as controls. The majority, 65.3%, belonged to the 41-60 years age group; 56% were females, 97.3% had non-insulin dependent diabetes, 44.7% had duration of diabetes of 1-5 years. Among the study group, 66% had cutaneous manifestations as compared to 21.3% in the controls, which was statistically highly significant (P < 0.0001 ). Varied cutaneous manifestations were significantly seen in diabetics compared to controls (P < 0.05). Diabetic thick skin in the form of finger pebbles was the most common manifestation (49.49%), followed by fungal and bacterial infections (34.34%). The occurrence of cutaneous manifestations directly correlated with the duration of diabetes (P < 0.05). Majority of cases with cutaneous manifestations were having uncontrolled diabetes and had multiple and varied manifestations. As many as 87.8% of cases with cutaneous manifestations had various vascular complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]