Question

You are beginning to teach a diabetic patient about the vascular complications of diabetes. Which information is appropriate for you to include?

A. Macroangiopathy does not occur in type 1 diabetes but does affect type 2 diabetics who have severe disease.
B. Microangiopathy is specific to diabetes and most commonly affects the capillary membranes of the eyes, kidneys, and skin.
C. Renal damage resulting from changes in large and medium-sized blood vessels can be prevented by careful glucose control.
D. Macroangiopathy causes slowed gastric emptying and the sexual impotency experienced by most patients with diabetes.

Answer 1

Properly controlled blood glucose levels are critical to preventing vascular complications in diabetes, such as diabetic nephropathy, which affects the kidneys' capillaries, and macroangiopathy, which affects larger blood vessels and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Step-by-step explanation:

When educating a diabetic patient on the vascular complications of diabetes, it is important to convey that both macroangiopathy and microangiopathy can occur in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Microangiopathy, which is damage to the small blood vessels, often affects areas such as the eyes, kidneys, and skin.

Diabetes-specific microangiopathy most notably leads to conditions such as diabetic nephropathy, a progressive kidney disease caused by damage to the capillaries in the kidneys' glomeruli due to long-term, poorly controlled blood glucose levels. Good glucose control is essential to prevent or slow down the progression of microangiopathy and its consequent complications, such as renal damage, vision loss, and neuropathy.

Macroangiopathy involves damage to larger blood vessels and can also be aggravated by poor blood glucose control, leading to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, it does not directly cause sexual impotency or slowed gastric emptying; these are more commonly related to diabetic neuropathy. Therefore, options A and D are not appropriate to include. The most appropriate information to share would include the points made in options B and C.