The target organs in diabetes mellitus include the kidneys, the eyes a
nd the small vessels. In these organs some specific histopathological
changes have been described but there are few reports of histopathoogi
cal changes in the lung in diabetic patients. Several reports describe
abnormal pulmonary function in diabetic patients and consider these a
bnormalities to be due to histopahtological changes found in the pulmo
nary vessels, We have studied the histopathological changes in the dia
betic lung comparing the findings in the autopsies of 61 diabetic and
50 non-diabetic patients. Statistically significant differences in the
incidence of chronic obstructive lung disease and pulmonary haemorrha
ge exist. There are no differences in the incidence of fibrosis of the
alveolar walls or intimal and medial thickening of small vessels, cha
nges associated with diabetes according to the literature. We have fou
nd a specific type of nodular fibrosis not previously reported which w
e believe to be typical of diabetes.