Hyperglycemia and mortality among patients with coronary artery disease

Abstract

Objective: Known diabetes is an independent predictor for mortality in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients; however, whether other glucose abnormalities are associated with death risk in CAD patients is unclear. The goal of this study was to examine the association between different glucose states and the risks of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality among CAD patients.

Research design and methods: The study cohort included 1,726 CAD patients who were 40-85 years of age in the Guangdong Coronary Artery Disease Cohort. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the association of baseline glucose status with risk of mortality.

Results: During a median follow-up of 3.1 years, 129 deaths were recorded, 109 of which were due to CVD. The multivariable-adjusted (age; sex; education; marriage; leisure-time physical activity; smoking; alcohol drinking; BMI; systolic blood pressure; total and HDL cholesterol; glomerular filtration rate; type, severity, duration, and treatment of CAD; history of heart failure; and use of antihypertensive, cholesterol-lowering, and antiplatelet drugs) hazard ratios in normoglycemia, impaired glucose regulation (IGR), newly diagnosed diabetes, and known diabetes were 1.00, 1.58 (95% CI 0.90-2.77), 2.41 (1.42-4.11), and 2.29 (1.36-3.84) for all-cause mortality and 1.00, 1.89 (1.01-3.54), 2.74 (1.50-5.01), and 2.73 (1.52-4.91) for CVD mortality. Assessing fasting plasma glucose only, impaired fasting glucose and newly diagnosed and known diabetes were also associated with increased risks of all-cause and CVD mortality compared with normoglycemia.

Conclusions: CAD patients with IGR, newly diagnosed diabetes, and known diabetes have increased risk of CVD mortality.