Why do some patients with type 1 diabetes live so long?

Table 1 Cox proportional hazard models for risk of cardiovascular disease from nephropathy (from: Grausland et al[7])

	All cause mortality	Cardiovascular mortality	IHD
Creatinine > 120 μmol/L	5.1	6.29	4.25
Microalbuminuria	1.32	1.44	1.40
Macroalbuminuria	2.4	2.57	1.77

IHD: Ischaemic heart disease.

Table 2 Identifying features of long-surviving patients with type 1 diabetes

Reasonable (not necessarily ideal) glycaemic control

High HDL-cholesterol levels

Low daily insulin requirements (“insulin sensitive”)

Normal body weight

Non-smokers

Lower blood pressures

Microalbumin negative after 15-20 yr of diabetes

Family history of longevity

HDL: High density lipoprotein.