[Association between glucose level and carotid plaque among 50 - 79 year olds from the communities]

To investigate the association between fasting blood glucose levels and the prevalence of carotid plaque in a community-based population of Beijing and to further explore the association between fasting glucose levels concomitant wand other cardiovascular risk factors as well as the prevalence of carotid plaque.

This study was a part of the Chinese Multi-provincial Cohort Study conducted in the communities of Beijing University in 2007. All the members aged 50 - 79 years from the community were recruited, with 1046 of them qualified as without missing data. Case of diabetes was defined if the fasting glucose level was greater than 7.0 mmol/L or on anti-diabetic drugs.

The mean level of fasting glucose was 5.89 mmol/L, and the prevalence of carotid plaque was 56.3%. For the reference on normal levels of fasting glucose, the risk on carotid plaque had an increase along with the increase of fasting glucose levels only under the univariate and multivariate analyses, after adjusting for age. However, the risk on carotid plaque in women was increased when there was an increase on the levels of fasting glucose. Specifically, for the reference on normal levels of fasting glucose, after adjusting for other cardiovascular risk factors, the odds of developing a carotid plaque was more than two folds in diabetic women. When combining the groups of risk factors (normal and abnormal) among the three groups of fasting glucose and assigning the normal level of risk factors concomitant with normal fasting glucose as a reference for both genders, the risk of developing a carotid plaque in diabetic women with abnormal level of risk factors ranked the highest, with statistical significance. When the diabetic patients combined with a decreased levels of HDL but increased levels of LDL, blood pressure, waist circumference, there appeared 2.8-(P = 0.014), 2.7-(P = 0.010), 2.4-(P = 0.013) and 2.1-times (P = 0.031) higher risks of developing carotid plaque than those in the reference group, respectively.

In this study, the prevalence of carotid plaque driven by increased fasting glucose was different on gender but the difference was only statistically significant in women. There also appeared a joint association of fasting glucose combined with other cardiovascular risk factors on the risk of developing a carotid plaque.