Diabetes mellitus y piel: lesiones cutáneas y su significado clínico / Skin lesions associated with diabetes mellitus

ABSTRACT

Approximately 30 to 70 percent of patients with diabetes will suffer a skin disorder during the course of their disease. The vast majority of these cases arise during the course of the disease. However, the skin disorder occasionally precedes the diagnosis of diabetes. Many of these lesions are highly associated with diabetes. Moreover, some of them are considered as markers of the disease. The most common skin lesion is diabetic dermopathy that presents as red or purple papules that last one to three weeks. Necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum is seen in 0.3 percent of diabetic patients, may precede the development of the disease and appears as oval or irregularly shaped, indurated plaques with central atrophy and yellow pigmentation. Granuloma annulare is seen in 10 to 24 percent of diabetic patients and appears as a skin-colored or erythematous, annular or arciform plaque with a moderately firm, rope-like border and central clearing. Physicians should be able to recognize these and other lesions associated with diabetes mellitus.