Brain Damage in Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Several previous studies have demonstrated involvement of the central nervous system in diabetes mellitus. Reske-Nielsen and Lundbaek (1963) gave a description of cerebral changes seen in an autopsy study of three cases of long term diabetes and considered these to contribute a diabetic encephalopathy. Lawrence et al. (1942) demonstrated lesions in the brain following fatal hypoglycaemia, and Fineberg and Altschul (1952) described cases in which permanent brain damage followed non-fatal hypoglycaemia. Grunnet (1963) found cerebral atherosclerosis to develop at an earlier age and more severely in the diabetic than the non-diabetic, and a higher incidence of cerebrovascular accident was found in diabetic than non-diabetic subjects by Alex et al. (1962).