DIABETES AND PERNICIOUS ANEMIA

Abstract

The combination of pernicious anemia and diabetes mellitus has been repeatedly described as extremely rare. The first case was reported in 1910 by Parkinson. 1 Within the last two years, nine instances have occurred at the New England Deaconess Hospital, and I have been able to discover a total of forty-eight cases, including unpublished records of patients given to me by other physicians and cases recorded in the literature. The increased interest of physicians inspired by the recent discoveries in the treatment of the two diseases has stimulated diagnosis, but another factor is the increase in the duration of life resulting from improvement in treatment, which affords more opportunity for the combination to occur. The relative frequency of the two diseases is indicated in tables 1 and 2 by the statistics of Goudsmit 2 for Holland and by statistics from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (New York), prepared by Mr.