2023-05-31 11:07:39
One in three adults with type 2 diabetes has elevated levels of two biomarkers associated with heart disease. Researchers report that these are associated with an increased risk of premature death.
Two biomarkers that indicate heart damage were elevated in 33 percent of adults with type 2 diabetes without known cardiovascular disease, researchers report in the Journal of the American Heart Association. In adults without diabetes, this was seen in 16 percent of samples.
One of them is cardiac troponin T, found in heart muscle cells. If the heart muscle is damaged, the biomarker enters the blood to a greater extent and leads to increased values there. The second biomarker was natriuretic hormone (NT-pro-B type), a hormone made in the heart that stimulates the kidneys to excrete fluid. Elevated levels of these two biomarkers were associated with 77 and 78 percent higher all-cause mortality and 54 percent higher cardiovascular disease mortality, respectively.
Unlike natriuretic hormone, troponin T was associated with diabetes regardless of age. In addition, troponin was significantly higher in people who had had type 2 diabetes for a long time and whose blood sugar levels were not well controlled. “Usually, cholesterol is the factor we target to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes. However, type 2 diabetes can have direct effects on the heart that are not related to cholesterol levels. If type 2 diabetes directly causes damage to the small vessels in the heart that is unrelated to the formation of cholesterol plaques, then cholesterol-lowering drugs cannot prevent heart damage,” said Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Selvin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
She concludes from the results that the two values are well suited to assessing the risk of heart disease in diabetics. In addition to statins to treat high cholesterol, many may need other therapies to lower their risk of cardiovascular disease.
Which: DOI 10.1161/JAHA.122.029083
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