A definitive model for predicting absolute risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in male and female people with Type II diabetes is not yet available. This paper provides an equation for estimating the risk of new CHD events in people with Type II diabetes, based on data from 4540 U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study male and female patients. Unlike previously published risk equations, the model is diabetes-specific and incorporates glycaemia, systolic blood pressure and lipid levels as risk factors, in addition to age, sex, ethnic group, smoking status and time since diagnosis of diabetes. All variables included in the final model were statistically significant (P<0.001, except smoking for which P=0.0013) in likelihood ratio testing. This model provides the estimates of CHD risk required by current guidelines for the primary prevention of CHD in Type II diabetes.

Page 673, right column, line 11 : for ' where d is the duration of diagnosed diabetes ' read ' where d is the effect parameter for the duration of diagnosed diabetes '. Page 673, right column, line 18 : for ' The survival probability for t years in a patient who has had diabetes for T years is also useful ' read ' The risk over t years in a patient who has had diabetes for T years is also useful '.

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We measured plasma leptin and insulin concentrations across a spectrum of obesity in 829 white Caucasian, 154 Afro-Caribbean, and 204 Asian type 2 diabetic subjects. Although the leptin concentrations covered a large range, there were no subgroups of diabetic subjects with very high or low leptin levels that would suggest mutations in the leptin gene or leptin receptor gene comparable to the obese diabetic ob/ob and db/db mice models respectively. In all three ethnic groups, leptin concentrations correlated with body mass index (BMI) in a similar manner to nondiabetic patients and were higher in females than males after adjustment for BMI, with no difference between ethnic groups. In a multivariate regression analysis, plasma leptin was associated with gender and BMI, (both P < 1 x 10(-17)) and with fasting plasma insulin concentrations (P = 5 x 10(-9)). Subjects treated with insulin had both raised insulin and leptin concentrations. When matched for different therapies, gender, and BMI, diabetic subjects with high leptin levels also had high insulin levels (P < 0.0009). High leptin concentrations may in part be influenced by hyperinsulinemia or impaired insulin sensitivity.