Diabetes News

In a study of individuals without known CVD or diabetes, additional assessment of HbA1c values in the context of CVD risk assessment provided little incremental benefit for prediction of CVD risk (JAMA)

The addition of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor therapy with sitagliptin to the treatment regime of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease is associated with a sustained improvement in myocardial performance during dobutamine stress and a reduction in postischemic stunning (Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging)

The excess risk of stroke associated with diabetes is significantly higher in women than men, independent of sex differences in other major cardiovascular risk factors. These data add to the existing evidence that men and women experience diabetes-related diseases differently and suggest the need for further work to clarify the biological, behavioural, or social mechanisms involved (The Lancet)

Compared with combined standard treatment, intensive BP or intensive glycemia treatment alone improved major CVD outcomes, without additional benefit from combining the two. In the ACCORD lipid trial, neither intensive lipid nor glycemia treatment produced an overall benefit, but intensive glycemia treatment increased mortality (Diabetes Care)

In patients with type 2 diabetes, moderate alcohol use, particularly wine consumption, is associated with reduced risks of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality (Diabetes Care)

These data suggest that a simple, reproducible, and less expensive marker such as HbA1c may be better able to identify prediabetic subjects at high cardiovascular risk compared with fasting glycemia or OGTT alone (Diabetes Care)

Reduction in UAE is associated with reduced risk of MI and stroke in diabetic and/or hypertensive patients. These findings suggest that UAE changes may represent a valuable intermediate end-point for CV risk evaluation in clinical practice (International Journal of Cardiology)

In patients with T2DM and no history of coronary artery disease, vit-D deficiency is independently associated with impaired global longitudinal strain. This suggests that vit-D deficiency may contribute to the development of myocardial dysfunction in these patients (Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications)

IPF is elevated in patients with diabetes and associated with poor glycemic control and cardiovascular complication (Thrombosis Research)

Treatment quality indicators measuring lipid- and albuminuria-lowering treatment status are valid quality measures, since they predict a lower risk of cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with diabetes. The quality indicators for glucose-lowering treatment should only be used for restricted populations with elevated HbA1c levels. Intriguingly, the tested indicators for blood pressure-lowering treatment did not predict patient outcomes (PLoS ONE)

Prediabetes and newly diagnosed diabetes are highly prevalent in patients with a TIA or stroke. The majority of these patients would not have been identified by fasting plasma glucose levels alone. Both 2-hour postload glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels identify more patients with a disturbed glucose metabolism (Cerebrovascular Diseases)

Accelerated up-titration of RAS antagonists and beta-blockers to maximum tolerated dosages is an effective and safe intervention for the primary prevention of cardiac events for diabetic patients pre-selected using NT-proBNP (American Journal of Cardiology)

Researchers have identified for the first time a biological pathway that is activated when blood sugar levels are abnormally high and causes irregular heartbeats, a condition known as cardiac arrhythmia that is linked with heart failure and sudden cardiac death (UC Davis Health System)

Emerging data suggest that there is an impact of hypoglycaemia on CV function and mechanistic link is multifactorial. Further research will be needed to ascertain the full impact of hypoglycaemia on the CV system and its complications (Cardiovascular Diabetology)

These results suggest that beneficial effects of fluvastatin on diabetic cardiomyopathy might result, at least in part, from improving coronary microvasculature through reduction in myocardial oxidative stress and upregulation of angiogenic factor (Heart and Vessels)

Circulating GLP-1 was found to be positivity associated with coronary atherosclerosis in humans. The clinical relevance of this observation needs further investigation (Cardiovascular Diabetology)

Our results indicate that glycemic memory causes irreversible changes in stiffness of endothelial cells. The formation of the observed “stiffness memory” could be important in the context of vascular complications which develop despite the normalization of the glucose level (Cardiovascular Diabetology)

An intensive lifestyle intervention focusing on weight loss did not reduce the rate of cardiovascular events in overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes (NEJM)

The results demonstrated an independent association between ba-PWV and hs-TNI in patients with T2DM with no clinical evidence of macrovascular disease. These findings suggest that increased arterial stiffness is closely related to subclinical myocardial injury in patients with T2DM (Cardiovascular Diabetology)

Fasting insulin was positively associated with adverse echocardiographic features and risk of subsequent HF in Cardiovascular Health Study participants, including those without an antecedent myocardial infarction (Circulation: Heart Failure)