Increased Mortality in Diabetic Foot Ulcer Patients: The Significance of Ulcer Type

Table 4

Deaths and causes of death in neuropathic and ischaemic ulcer patients on death certification and postmortem examination.

Cause of death	Neuropathic; on DC; ()	Ischaemic; on DC; ()		Neuropathic; on PM; ()	Ischaemic; on PM; ()
Ischaemic heart disease	28 (50%)	83 (44.4%)	0.460	19 (79.2%)	31 (55.4%)	0.049
(i) CAD/atherosclerosis	23	57	0.141	16	24	0.055
(ii) MI/coronary thrombosis	17	30	0.019	13	13	0.009
(iii) Cardiac arrest	0	5	0.519	0	0	0.116
Other cardiac causes	1 (1.8%)	12 (6.4%)	0.188	0	7 (12.5%)	0.176
Bronchopneumonia	7 (12.5%)	32 (17.1%)	0.411	1 (4.2%)	2 (3.6%)	0.082
Cancer	8 (14.3%)	12 (6.4%)	0.067	0	2 (3.6%)	0.606
Pulmonary thromboembolic disease	1 (1.8%)	7 (3.7%)	0.482	1 (4.2%)	5 (8.9%)	0.469
Cerebrovascular accident	1 (1.8%)	10 (5.4%)	0.285	0	1 (1.8%)	0.865
Septicaemia	2 (3.6%)	8 (4.3%)	0.816	0	0	0.678
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	0	3 (1.6%)	0.616	0	2 (3.6%)	0.606
Renal failure	4 (7.1%)	6 (3.2%)	0.205	0	0	0.678
Gastrointestinal bleeding	1 (1.8%)	4 (2.1%)	0.870	1 (4.2%)	0	0.232
Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm	1 (1.8%)	1 (0.5%)	0.392	1 (4.2%)	1 (1.8%)	0.544
Other	2 (3.6%)	9 (4.8%)	0.701	1 (4.2%)	4 (7.1%)	0.619

DC: death certification, PM: postmortem, CAD: coronary artery disease, and MI: myocardial infarction.