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Non-diabetic hyperglycaemia and cardiovascular risk: moving beyond categorisation to individual interpretation of
P Chamnan1, R K Simmons, R Jackson
1MRC Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK.
Insights
Non-diabetic high blood sugar (hyperglycaemia) significantly increases cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, especially with other risk factors. An integrated CVD risk assessment is crucial for effective management.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Endocrinology
- Public Health
Background:
- Non-diabetic hyperglycaemia is often overlooked or treated as a simple risk category in cardiovascular disease (CVD) assessment.
- Current approaches frequently isolate hyperglycaemia from other contributing vascular risk factors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate hyperglycaemia as a continuous risk factor for CVD.
- To determine the absolute CVD risk in individuals with varying HbA1c levels and concurrent risk factors.
- To highlight the importance of considering hyperglycaemia within a multifactorial risk context.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from 10,144 participants in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer-Norfolk cohort.
- Calculated cardiovascular disease (CVD) rates across different HbA1c levels.
- Stratified analyses by the presence and severity of traditional CVD risk factors.
Main Results:
- Significant variations in CVD rates were observed across HbA1c levels, influenced by other risk factors.
- Non-diabetic individuals with HbA1c <5.5% showed markedly increased CVD rates when traditional risk factors were present.
- Absolute CVD risk in non-diabetic individuals with HbA1c <5.5% and multiple risk factors exceeded that of individuals with higher HbA1c but fewer risk factors.
Conclusions:
- Cardiovascular risk in non-diabetic hyperglycaemia is substantially modified by the presence of other CVD risk factors.
- An integrated assessment of cardiovascular risk, considering the combination of all factors, is recommended over isolated diagnoses.
- Focus should shift towards a holistic evaluation of an individual's combined risk profile for better treatment strategies.
Aims/Hypothesis:
Non-diabetic hyperglycaemia is usually not considered at all or is viewed as a binary risk category in isolation from other factors when quantifying cardiovascular risk. We argue that hyperglycaemia should be considered as a continuous risk factor and only in the context of other vascular risk factors. To examine the potential impact of hyperglycaemia on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, we calculated the absolute CVD risk in groups defined by different levels of HbA(1c) and other CVD risk factors.
Methods:
We used data on 10,144 men and women from the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer-Norfolk cohort to calculate CVD rates across levels of HbA(1c) in groups characterised by different levels of traditional risk factors.
Results:
We found significant differences in CVD rates across levels of HbA(1c) in groups defined by different levels of the other risk factors. CVD rates for non-diabetic individuals with an HbA(1c) of <5.5% increased from 0.6 (95% CI 0.3-1.2) to 29.6 (95% CI 14.8-59.1) per 1,000 person-years when traditional CVD risk factors were added sequentially to the lowest risk reference group. In most cases, non-diabetic individuals with an HbA(1c) of <5.5% and high values for all other CVD risk factors had substantially higher absolute CVD rates than those with an HbA(1c) of 6.0% to 6.4% but with no other raised CVD risk factors (29.6 [95% CI 14.8-59.1] and 2.5 [95% CI 0.4-18.1], respectively). A history of diabetes significantly increased CVD risk over the non-diabetic hyperglycaemia range. Comparisons of CVD rates across tertiles of total cholesterol:HDL-cholesterol ratio or mean systolic blood pressure in groups characterised by different levels of other risk factors showed similar findings.
Conclusions/Interpretation:
In people with non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, cardiovascular risk is highly dependent on the presence of other CVD risk factors. Attention should be given not to whether an individual has 'pre-diabetes', 'hypertension' or 'hypercholesterolaemia', but to an integrated assessment of CVD risk, based on the combination of risk factors present and potential benefits of treatment.
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