[Side effects of drugs].

with Hb AIc. Patients with very high Hb Alc values possibly represent a subgroup of the diabetic population, outside the normal criterion oflong-term control, during a phase ofmetabolic decompensation; and they may show features more typical of the lipid disturbances of ketosis than of long-term diabetic control. Thus our main finding is related not to diabetic control but to the type of diabetes, in that patients with maturity-onset diabetes have abnormally low HDL cholesterol concentrations irrespective of vascular disease and, possibly, of mode of treatment, whereas patients with juvenile-onset diabetes have essentially normal concentrations of HDL cholesterol.