Interventions to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk in Children with Type 1 Diabetes

Despite recent advances in improved glycemic control, the magnitude of lifetime risk from premature cardiovascular disease in individuals with type 1 diabetes remains at least 10 fold higher than in the general population. The availability of lipoprotein fractionation has allowed the spotlight for this increased risk to shift from dysglycemia to diabetes-induced dyslipidemia associated with insulin resistance. Interventions designed to simultaneously improve both factors can have distinct and additive effects on slowing the initiation and progression of atherosclerotic lesions. As fullblown cardiovascular disease is not evident during childhood, there is a critical need to identify the most predictable surrogate markers that could assign elevated risk, as well as the design of safe and targeted interventions that could improve outcomes in this population.

This review will examine the evidence supporting the notion that cardiovascular disease in type 1 diabetes is associated with significant insulin resistance and it begins in childhood, making it necessary to design rational clinical trials that will significantly reduce risk in this population.