Diabetes mellitus in the elderly: Diagnostic features

The new diagnostic criteria of the diabetes do not consider the age of the subjects. It has been demonstrated that the fasting glucose values as well as the glycemia levels after oral glucose load increase with age. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate whether the new diagnostic criteria are valid for the elderly subjects also. In spite of the findings that among the subjects with fasting glycemia of 126–140 mg/ml subsequent controls after long times often revealed the presence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and numerous cases with IFG displayed values <110 mg/dl after longer times, the present authors accept the new diagnostic criteria even for the elderly subjects. However, they emphasize the importance of distinguishing diabetes in the elderly in subclasses, such as clinically manifest diabetes, mild diabetes and diabetic glucose tolerance (DGT) type, in order to establish the early diagnosis of diabetes, and therefore, to prevent the chronic vascular complications.