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Introduction: Diabetes millitus is one of the most common disorders that its complications involved every organ such as skin. Some of skin Conditions can be regarded as cutaneous markers of diabetes while others are related to its characteristic complications such as vascular disorders or peripheral neuropathy. Early diagnosis and treatment of skin disorders can prevent other serious complications such as diabetic foot. Methods: Thus, with the aim of detecting the prevalence of cutaneous manifestations of DM, we examined 351 diabetic patients that consecutively attending the outpatient diabetes clinic at the Razi hospital in Rasht in 2000–1, on the basis of complete dermatological examination in a analytic descriptive convenience non-probability sampling study. We made use of paraclinic examinations in suspicious cases. We studied the relation of cutaneous manifestations to type of DM, age, sex and diabetes duration. Analysis was performed by Chi–square and t test. Results: Diabetic skin manifestations were detected in 70.1% diabetic patients. Majority of patients with skin lesions were older than 45 years (65%). Our study showed significant difference between involvement by skin lesions and duration of DM (p=0.001) and sex (male>female) (p=0.01). This study did not show significant difference between involvement by skin lesions and age, and type of DM. Infection (28.6%) was the most common finding followed by skin tag (25.8%), pruritus (23.8%), pallid and cool skin on distal extremities (19.4%) and diabetic dermopathy (13.6%). Among skin infections, the most common were fungal infections (24%). Conclusion: Thus, in this study skin lesions were common in DM patients and the most frequent cutaneous manifestations were infections (especially fungal infections). For these reasons, education and special attention to medical staff and patients and searching practical approach to early diagnosis and treatment of skin lesions seem to be necessary.

Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Epidemiology, Skin Diseases

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