Biomarkers of vascular complications in type 2 diabetes

People with T2D are at substantially increased risk of developing severe complications, (coronary heart disease, stroke, retinopathy and nephropathy). Clinicians have an important responsibility to identify those patients who, because they are at high risk, will benefit more from a preventive program or intensified therapy. However, due to the limited accuracy of the predictive tests, and limited effectiveness of preventive measures, clinicians and their patients show a suboptimal compliance to such programs. An improved risk assessment will positively impact cost/benefit ratios, opening the door for new intervention. Research involving human genetic or genomic information becomes increasingly powerful and, in conjunction with other novel biomarkers, together with personal or health data, will offer new tools for harnessing risk factors underlying complex (multi-factorial) diseases such as T2D and its complications. Altogether, there is a rationale to develop early biomarkers with improved predictive value for vascular complications of T2D by integrating patients' genetic information with traditional and emerging biomarkers.