{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.04401993355481727, 'fraction_numerical': 0.028792912513842746, 'mean_word_length': 5.072268907563025, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes: Macrovascular disease

This is the third of four reports on the 1996 meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), which was held in Vienna, Austria, in September. It covers reports related to macrovascular disease, including risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), dyslipidemia, treatment of CVD, and experimental models of ischemic brain damage. Many of the presentations at the meeting dealt with risk factors for CVD. R.C. Turner et al., Oxford, U.K., reported risk factors for myocardial infarction or angina among 3,055 subjects newly diagnosed with type II diabetes who were followed for 7.9 years (abstract 1047; abstract numbers are from the Abstracts of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, DiabetologLa 39 [Suppl. 1]:A1-A31O). Of these patients, 335 developed coronary heart disease. In a comparison of the middle and upper tertile with the lowest tertile, risk ratios were 1.41 and 2.26 for LDL, 0.9 and 0.55 for HDL, 1.47 and 1.52 for HbAlc, and 1.52 and 1.82 for systolic blood pressure. The risk ratio was 1.41 for smoking. After adjustment for these factors, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, exercise, triglyceride, insulin, microalbuminuria, and retinopathy were not significant. Other risk factors were considered by R.E Stolk et al., Rotterdam and Maastricht, The Netherlands (abstract 246), who showed that hyperinsulinemia is associated with increased levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-l and tissue plasminogen activator regardless of the levels of glucose and HbAlc, BMI, systolic blood pressure, and degree of atherosclerosis and regardless of whether the overall population is considered or patients with diabetes are excluded. In a related study, R. D'Agostino and S. Haffner, San Antonio, TX (abstract 1058), assessed CVD risk factors among 479 patients with type II diabetes. Those with relative insulin sensitivity had lower fibrinogen, PAI, and triglycerides and higher HDL, while blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and carotid intima-medial thickness were not significantly different. However, G. De Pergola et al., Bari, Italy (abstract 181), showed that siblings of people with type II diabetes had increased common carotid artery intimal-medial thickness, independent of obesity. Reporting on an interesting "experiment of nature," T Salvatore et al., Naples, Italy (abstract 1046), described a study of 388 patients with type II diabetes and an additional 103 patients with type II diabetes and chronic liver disease. The latter group had a decreased prevalence of macrovascular disease, which appeared to be related to their thrombocytopenia. Among other studies of CVD risk factors was that of P Gualdiero et al., Naples, Italy (abstract 240), who showed a significant correlation between free fatty acid levels and ventricular premature complexes on 24-h ambulatory electrocardiograph recordings, independent of age, sex, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, left ventricular mass index, glycated hemoglobin, fasting insulin, triglycerides, and physical activity. A. Chico et al., Barcelona, Spain, and Medellin, Colombia (abstract 1074), found that plasma homocysteine was 8.45 umol/1 in 70 patients with diabetes and 6.82 umol/1 in 50 nondiabetic control subjects and that macroangiopathy and proteinuria were associated with higher levels. M.A. Gall et al., Gentofte and Bagsvaerd, Denmark, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (abstract 1075), measured homocysteine levels in 211 patients with type II diabetes and showed that levels