The association between diabetes and thoracic aortic aneurysms.

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Research
• Endocrinology
• Medical Statistics

Background:

• A negative correlation between diabetes mellitus (DM) and abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) is established.
• Similarities and differences in etiology between AAAs and thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) are documented.
• The relationship between DM and TAA requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the association between diabetes mellitus and thoracic aortic aneurysms.
• To perform a meta-analysis of contemporary clinical studies on DM and TAA.
• To determine if DM confers a protective effect against TAA development.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search conducted following PRISMA guidelines.
• Inclusion of population cohort and case-control studies.
• Random-effects meta-analysis to compute pooled unadjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Main Results:

• Ten studies (5 cohort, 5 case-control) involving 1,006,360 patients were analyzed.
• Overall meta-analysis showed an inverse association between DM and TAA (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61-0.98).
• Primary analysis of cohort studies revealed a significant negative association (OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.59-0.84), while case-control studies showed a non-significant trend (OR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.50-1.47).

Conclusions:

• Diabetes mellitus demonstrates a statistically significant inverse association with thoracic aortic aneurysms.
• This finding mirrors the known protective association between DM and abdominal aortic aneurysms.
• Further research is warranted to elucidate the protective mechanisms of DM against TAA and explore therapeutic potential.