BLOOD FLOW IN SUBCUTANEOUS FAT TISSUE IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETES MELLITUS

. A comparison of the abdominal subcutaneous fat tissue blood flow (FBF) has been made in 13 patients with diabetes mellitus and in 29 healthy individuals. As the metabolic state may influence the tissue blood flow, as well as vice versa, a possible relationship between FBF and the arterial levels of glucose, lactate, pyruvate, β-hydroxybutyrate, free fatty acids and aceto-acetate was searched for. The blood flow was calculated from the elimination curves from locally injected radioactive xenon. The average blood flow was significantly (p< 0.001) higher in the diabetics than in the healthy individuals. There was a significant correlation between FBF and the abdominal skin temperature both in diabetics and in healthy individuals. The skin temperature was significantly higher in the diabetics. The administration of insulin to the diabetics lowered the FBF. Prolonged fasting increased FBF in the healthy controls, as judged from observations after 17 hours of fasting. Fasting for 34 hours did not further change the FBF. No correlation was observed between the FBF and the arterial concentration of any of the substrates analyzed.