Peripheral microcirculatory lesions in myotonic dystrophy, a light and an electron microscopic study on digital biopsies

Peripheral microcirculation was studied in digital biopsies of 8 patients affected by Steinert's disease and in 5 normal volunteers. In 5 patients in whom clinical and laboratory investigations exclude diabetes, hypertension and other angiopathy-inducing disease, light and electron microscopic studies demonstrated significant thickening of the capillary basement membrane similar to that observed in diabetic microangiopathy, and haemodynamic-proliferative arteriosclerotic changes in arterioles and arteriovenular anastomoses, unrelated to the young age of the patients. Statistical evaluations revealed a significant correlation between peripheral microvascular alterations and disease duration.