In most patients, diabetes can be controlled by diet, exercise, and insulin injections.

If the condition is not treated, however, some serious complications may result. For example, uncontrolled diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, kidney disease, and amputations of arms and legs. It also doubles a person's risk for heart disease and increases the risk of stroke. Eye problems also occur more commonly among diabetics than in the general population. Some other long-term effects of diabetes mellitus include the following:

Loss of sensitivity in certain nerves, especially in the legs and feet Foot ulcers Delayed healing of wounds Heart and kidney disease

Read more: Prognosis - Diabetes Mellitus - body, effects, disease http://www.faqs.org/health/Sick-V2/Diabetes-Mellitus-Prognosis.html#ixzz1Z96bYRqb

http://www.faqs.org/health/Sick-V2/Diabetes-Mellitus-Prognosis.html

Prognosis
Your treatment plan is likely to require adjustment over time. Insulin resistance increases with age. And the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas may wear out as the pancreas tries to keep up with the body's extra insulin needs. After the first few years, the majority of people with type 2 diabetes require more than one medicine to keep their blood sugar controlled. About one out of three people with type 2 diabetes requires insulin. The prognosis in people with type 2 diabetes varies. It depends on how well an individual modifies their risk of complications. Heart attack, stroke and kidney disease can result in premature death. Disability due to blindness, amputation, heart disease, stroke and nerve damage may occur. Some people with type 2 diabetes become dependent on dialysis treatments because of kidney failure. There is a tremendous amount you can do to decrease your risk of complications:

Eat a healthy diet Get regular exercise Pay careful attention to your blood sugar levels Reduce your other risks of heart disease

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/health_conditions_article.asp?AZ=487&Page=8

Cooperative study The effect of diabetes mellitus on prognosis and serial left ventricular function after acute myocardial infarction: Contribution of both coronary disease and diastolic left ventricular dysfunction to the adverse prognosis

Peter H Stone MD FACC , a, b, c, James E Muller MD FACCa, b, c, Tyler Hartwell PhDa, b, c, B.J York MSa, b, c, John D Rutherford MD FACCa, b, c, Corette B Parker MSPHa, b, c, Zoltan G Turi MD FACCa, b, c, H.William Strauss MD FACCa, b, c, James T Willerson MD FACCa, b, c, Thomas Robertson MD FACCa, b, c, Eugene Braunwald MD FACCa, b, c, Allan S Jaffe MD FACCa, b, c and MILIS Study Group
a

Cardiovascular Division. Departments of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA Cardiovascular Division, Barnes Hospital, Washington University Medical School, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Cooperating Institutions of the Multicenter Investigation of the Limitation of Infarct Size (MILIS), USA

Received 28 September 1988; revised 1 February 1989; Accepted 15 February 1989. Available online 4 February 2004.

Abstract
Patients with diabetes mellitus experience a more adverse outcome after acute myocardial infarction compared with nondiabetic patients, although the mechanisms responsible for these findings are not clear. From the Multicenter Investigation of the Limitation of Infarct Size (MILIS) study, the course of acute infarction in 85 diabetic patients was compared with that in 415 nondiabetic patients, all of whom had serial assessments of left ventricular function. The diabetic patients experienced a more complicated in-hospital and postdischarge course than did the nondiabetic patients, including a higher incidence of postinfarction angina, infarct extension, heart failure and death, despite the development of a smaller infarct size and similar levels of left ventricular ejection fraction. Although diabetic patients had a worse profile of cardiovascular risk factors at the time of the index infarction, the increased incidence of adverse outcomes among them persisted despite adjustment for these baseline imbalances. Diabetic women had a poor baseline risk profile compared with the other groups categorized by gender and diabetic status, and experienced an almost twofold increase in cardiac mortality despite development of the smallest infarct size during the index event. The duration of diabetes and the use of insulin at the time of the index infarction were associated with a better in-hospital mortality rate, but the duration of diabetes did not exert a major influence on the outcome of the diabetic patients. The factors responsible for the increased incidence of adverse outcomes among diabetic patients may be related to an acceleration of the atherosclerotic process, diastolic left ventricular dysfunction associated with diabetic cardiomyopathy or other unidentified unfavorable processes.

References
1. S Pell and C.A D'Alonzo, Factors associated with long-term survival of diabetics. JAMA, 214 (1970), pp. 18331840. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (23) 2. I.I Kessler, Mortality experience of diabetic patients: a twenty-six year follow-up study. Am J Med, 51 (1971), pp. 715724. Article | PDF (1049 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (64) 3. W.B Kannel, M Hjortland and W.P Castelli, Role of diabetes in congestive heart failure: the Framingham study. Am J Cardiol, 34 (1974), pp. 2934. Article | PDF (729 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (547) 4. M.J Garcia, P.M McNamara, T Gordon and W.B Kannel, Morbidity and mortality in diabetics in the Framingham population: sixteen year followup study. Diabetes, 23 (1974), pp. 105111. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (667) 5. N.G Soler, M.A Bennett, B.L Pentecost, M.G Fitzgerald and J.M Malins, Myocardial infarction in diabetics. Q J Med, 173 (1975), pp. 125132. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (29) 6. M.J.B Tansey, L.H Opie and B.M Kennelly, High mortality in obese women diabetics with acute myocardial infarction. Br Med J, 1 (1977), pp. 16241626. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (17) 7. J.V Zammit Maempel, Effect of diabetes on the course of acute myocardial infarction in Malta. Israel J Med Sci, 14 (1978), pp. 424431. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (5) 8. S Heyden, G Heiss, A.G Bartel and C.G Hames, Sex differences in coronary mortality among diabetics in Evans County, Georgia. J Chronic Dis, 33 (1980), pp. 265273. Article | PDF (770 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (41) 9. A Czyzk, A.S Krolewski, S Szablowska, A Alot and J Kopczynski, Clinical course of myocardial infarction among diabetic patients. Diabetes Care, 3 (1980), pp. 526529. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (37) 10. E Barrett-Connor and D.L Wingard, Sex differential in ischemic heart disease mortality in diabetics: a prospective population-based study. Am J Epidemiol, 118 (1983), pp. 489496. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (152) 11. J.H Fuller, M.J Shipley, G Rose, R.J Jarrett and H Keen, Mortality from coronary heart disease and stroke in relation to degree of glycaemia: the Whitehall study. Br Med J, 287 (1983), pp. 867870. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (332) 12. A.S Jaffe, J.J Spadaro, K Schechtman, R Roberts, E.M Geltman and B.E Sobel, Increased congestive heart failure after myocardial infarction of modest extent in patients with diabetes mellitus. Am Heart J, 108 (1984), pp. 3137. Article | PDF (747 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (126)

13. Multicenter Postinfarction Research Group, J.W Smith, F.I Marcus and R Serokman, Prognosis of patients with diabetes mellitus after acute myocardial infarction. Am J Cardiol, 54 (1984), pp. 718721. Article | PDF (461 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (110) 14. W Kannel, Lipids, diabetes, and coronary heart disease: insights from the Framingham study. Am Heart J, 110 (1985), pp. 11101117. 15. L Rytter, S Troelsen and H Beck-Nielsen, Prevalence and mortality of acute myocardial infarction in patients with diabetes. Diabetes Care, 8 (1985), pp. 230234. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (126) 16. G Ulvenstram, A Aberg and R Bergstrand, et al. Long-term prognosis after myocardial infarction in men with diabetes. Diabetes, 34 (1985), pp. 787792. 17. A.S Krolewski, E.J Kosinski and J.H Warren, et al. Magnitude and determinants of coronary artery disease in juvenile-onset, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Am J Cardiol, 59 (1987), pp. 750755. Article | PDF (836 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (320) 18. A.R Christlieb, Diabetes and hypertensive vascular disease: mechanism and treatment. Am J Cardiol, 32 (1973), pp. 592606. Article | PDF (4743 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (46) 19. W.B Kannel and D.L McGee, Diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors: the Framingham study. Circulation, 59 (1979), pp. 813. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (570) 20. W.B Kannel and D.L McGee, Diabetes and glucose tolerance as risk factors for cardiovascular disease: the Framingham study. Diabetes Care, 2 (1979), pp. 120126. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (519) 21. F.S Fein and E.H Sonnenblick, Diabetic cardiomyopathy. Prog Cardiovasc Dis, 27 (1985), pp. 255270. Article | PDF (5717 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (137) 22. S.M Factor, E.M Okun and T Minase, Capillary microaneurysms in the human diabetic heart. N Engl J Med, 302 (1980), pp. 384388. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (98) 23. T.J Regan, P.0 Ettinger and M.I Kham, et al. Altered myocardial function and metabolism in chronic diabetes mellitus without ischemia in dogs. Circ Res, 35 (1974), pp. 222237. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (62) 24. H Halkin and M Ravid, Involvement of the intramural coronary circulation in diabetic angiopathy. Israel J Med Sci, 8 (1972), pp. 773774. | View Record in Scopus |

25. T Ledet, Diabetic cardiomyopathy: quantitative histological studies of the heart from young juvenile diabetics. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand (Sect A), 84 (1976), pp. 421428. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (25) 26. V.W Fischer, H.B Barner and M.L Leskiw, Capillary basal laminar thickness in diabetic human myocardium. Diabetes, 28 (1979), pp. 713719. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (23) 27. V.W Fischer, H.B Barner and L.S Larose, Pathomorphologic aspects of muscular tissue in diabetes mellitus. Hum Pathol, 15 (1984), pp. 11271136. Article | PDF (7724 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (16) 28. T.J Regan, C.F Wu, C.K Yen, H.A Oldewurtel and B Haider, Myocardial composition and function in diabetes: the effects of chronic insulin use. Circ Res, 49 (1981), pp. 1268 1277. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (60) 29. F.S Fein, L.B Kornstein, J.E Strobeck, J.M Capasso and E.H Sonnenblick, Altered myocardial mechanics in diabetic rats. Circ Res, 47 (1980), pp. 922933. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (144) 30. S Penpargkul, F Fein, E.H Sonnenblick and J Scheuner, Depressed cardiac sarcoplasmic reticular function from diabetic rats. J Mol Cell Cardiol, 13 (1981), pp. 303309. Article | PDF (501 K) | | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (89) 31. P.K Ganguly, G.N Pierce, K.S Dhalla and N.S Dhalla, Defective sarcoplasmic reticular calcium transport in diabetic cardiomyopathy. Am J Physiol, 244 (1983), pp. E528E535. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (124) 32. N Makino, K.S Dhalla, V Elimbon and N.S Dhalla, Sarcolemmal Ca++ transport in streptozotocin-induced diabetic cardiomyopathy in rats. Am J Physiol, 253 (1987), pp. E202E207. 33. MILIS Study Group, J.E Muller, E Braunwald and M.B Mock, et al. NHLBI Multicenter Investigation of the Limitation of Infarct Size (MILIS). Design and methods of the clinical trial. Am Heart Assoc Monogr, 100 (1984), pp. 1134. 34. R Roberts, C Croft and H.K Gold, et al. Effect of propranolol on myocardial infarct size in a randomized, blinded multicenter trial. N Engl J Med, 311 (1984), pp. 218225. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (20) 35. MILIS Study Group, Hyaluronidase therapy for acute myocardial infarction: results of a randomized, blinded, multicenter trial. Am J Cardiol, 57 (1986), pp. 12361243. 36. W.C Watson, K.D Buchanan and C Dickon, Serum cholesterol levels after myocardial infarction. Br Med J, 2 (1963), pp. 709712. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (16)

37. P Rigo, M Murray and H.W Strauss, et al. Left ventricular function in acute myocardial infarction evaluated by gated scintiphotography. Circulation, 50 (1974), pp. 678684. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (3) 38. R Roberts, P.D Henry and B.E Sobel, An improved basis for enzymatic estimation of infarct size. Circulation, 52 (1975), pp. 743754. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (51) 39. S.B Rosalki, An improved procedure for serum creatinine phosphokinase determination. J Lab Clin Med, 69 (1967), pp. 696705. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (220) 40. P.D Henry, R Roberts and B.E Sobel, Rapid separation of plasma creatine kinase isoenzymes by batch adsorption on glass beads. Clin Chem, 21 (1975), pp. 844849. | View Record in Scopus | | Cited By in Scopus (2) 41. D.R Cox, Regression models and life-tables. J R Stat Soc (B), 34 (1972), pp. 187202.

42. E.L Kaplan and P Meier, Nonparametric estimation from incomplete observations. J Am Stat Assoc, 53 (1958), pp. 4581. 43. J.D Kalbfleisch and R.L Prentice, The Proportional Hazards Model The Statistical Analysis of Failure Time Data, John Wiley, New York (1980), pp. 70117. 44 S.S Mintz and L.N Katz, Recent myocardial infarction: an analysis of five hundred and seventy-two cases. Arch Intern Med, 80 (1947), pp. 205236. 45. L.H Opie, M.J Tansey and B.M Kennelly, The heart in diabetes mellitus. Part 11. Acute myocardial infarction and diabetes. S Afr Med J, 56 (1979), pp. 256261. 46. A.D.B Harrower and B.F Clarke, Experience of coronary care in diabetes. Br Med J, 1 (1976), pp. 126128. 47. S Weitzman, G.S Wagner, G Heiss, T.L Haney and C Slome, Myocardial infarction size and mortality in diabetes. Diabetes Care, 5 (1982), pp. 3135. 48. D.J Gwilt, M Petri, P.W Lewis, M Nattrass and B.L Pentecost, Myocardial infarct size and mortality in diabetic patients. Br Heart J, 54 (1985), pp. 466472. 49. P Nicod, S.E Lewis and J.C Corbett, et al. Increased incidence and clinical correlation of persistently abnormal technetium pyrophosphate myocardial scintigrams following acute myocardial infarction in patients with diabetes mellitus. Am Heart J, 103 (1982), pp. 822 829. 50. M Greaves and F.E Preston, Haemostatic abnormalities in diabetics, R.J Jarred, Editor, Diabetes and Heart Disease, Elsevier, Amsterdam (1984), pp. 4780.

51. G Ulvenstam, A Aberg and K Pennert, et al. Recurrent myocardial infarction. 2. Possibilities of prediction. Eur Heart J, 6 (1985), pp. 303311. 52. F.V Crall and W.C Roberts, The extramural and intramural coronary arteries in juvenile diabetes mellitus: analysis of nine necropsy patients aged 19 to 38 years with onset of diabetes before age 15. Am J Med, 64 (1978), pp. 221230. 53. A.C Dortimer, P.N Shenoy and R.A Shiroff, et al. Diffuse coronary artery disease in diabetic patients: fact or fiction?. Circulation, 57 (1978), pp. 133136. 54. V.J Vigorita, G.W Moore and G.M Hutchins, Absence of correlation between coronary arterial atherosclerosis and severity or duration of diabetes mellitus of adult onset. Am J Cardiol, 46 (1980), pp. 535542. 55. B.F Waller, P.J Palumbo, J.T Lie and W.C Roberts, Status of the coronary arteries at necropsy in diabetes mellitus with onset after age 30 years: analysis of 229 diabetic patients with and without clinical evidence of coronary heart disease and comparison to 183 control subjects. Am J Med, 69 (1980), pp. 498506. 56. B.F Waller, P.J Palumbo, J.T Lie and W.C Roberts, Diabetes mellitus, an accelerator of coronary atherosclerosis only when onset is before age 46: a necropsy study of 1,172 diabetic coronary arteries and 844 control coronary arteries (abstr). Am J Cardiol, 43 (1979), p. 436.

57. R.I Hamby and L Sherman, Duration and treatment of diabetes: relationship to severity of coronary artery disease. NY State J Med, 79 (1979), pp. 16831688. 58. T.B Miller, Cardiac performance of isolated perfused hearts from alloxen diabetic hearts. Am J Physiol, 236 (1979), pp. H808H812. 59. T.J Regan, M.M Lyons and S.S Ahmed, Evidence for cardiomyopathy in familial diabetes mellitus. J Clin Invest, 60 (1977), pp. 885899. 60. J.E Sanderson, D.J Brown, A Rivellese and E Kohner, Diabetic cardiomyopathy? An electrocardiographic study of young diabetics. Br Med J, 1 (1978), pp. 404407. 61. L.M Shapiro, A.P Howat and M.M Calter, Left ventricular function in diabetes mellitus. 1. Methodology and prevalence of spectrum of abnormalities. Br Heart J, 45 (1981), pp. 122128. 62. L.M Shapiro, B.A Leatherdale, J MacKinnon and R.F Fletcher, Left ventricular function in diabetes mellitus. II. Relation between clinical features and left ventricular function. Br Heart J, 45 (1981), pp. 129132. 63. L.M Shapiro, Echocardiographic features of impaired ventricular function in diabetes mellitus. Br Heart J, 47 (1982), pp. 439444. 64. L.M Shapiro, A prospective study of heart disease in diabetes mellitus. Q J Med, 53 (1984), pp. 5568.

65. T.D Ruddy, S.L Shumak and P.P Liu, et al. The relationship of cardiac diastolic dysfunction to concurrent hormonal and metabolic status in type I diabetes mellitus. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 66 (1988), pp. 113138. 66. G Jermendy, L Kammerer and Z.M Koltai, et al. Preclinical abnormality of left ventricular performance in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Acta Diabet Lat, 20 (1983), pp. 311320. 67. D.J Lerner and W.B Kannel, Patterns of coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality in the sexes: a 24-year follow-up of the Framingham population. Am Heart J, 111 (1986), pp. 383390. 68. G.H Tofler, P.H Stone and J.E Muller, et al. Effects of gender and race on prognosis after myocardial infarction: adverse prognosis for women, particularly black women. J Am Coll Cardiol, 9 (1987), pp. 473482. 69. F.S Fein, J.E Strobeck, A Malhotra, J Scheuer and E.H Sonnenblick, Reversibility of diabetic cardiomyopathy with insulin in rats. Circ Res, 49 (1981), pp. 12511261. 70. F.S Fein, B Miller-Green, B Zola and E.H Sonnenblick, Reversibility of diabetic cardiomyopathy with insulin in rabbits. Am J Physiol, 250 (1986), pp. H108H113. 71. G Pogatsa, M Bihari-Varga and G Szinay, Effect of diabetes therapy on the myocardium in experimental diabetes. Acta Diabet Lat, 16 (1979), pp. 129138. 72. T Gundersen and J Kjekshus, Timolol treatment after myocardial infarction in diabetic patients. Diabetes Care, 6 (1983), pp. 285290.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0735109789900533