Anzeige
Erschienen in:
16.08.2016 | Original Article
Vascular or chronological age: which is the better marker to estimate the cardiovascular risk in patients with type 1 diabetes?
Erschienen in: Acta Diabetologica | Ausgabe 6/2016
Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhaltenAbstract
Aims
To evaluate whether using vascular age (VA) instead of chronological age (CA) in the Framingham score would enhance the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk estimation in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study comprising 58 T1D patients and 38 control subjects matched by age, gender and body mass index. To estimate the VA, we used carotid intima-media thickness normality estimation tables that took into account age, gender and ethnic group.
Results
Compared to the control group, T1D patients had an older VA with an 8.8-year difference (p < 0.001), a higher CVD risk stratification comparing CA and VA (p < 0.001). In the group of T1D patients, there was a 9.4-year difference between VA and CA (p < 0.001), mainly due to a greater increase in women compared to men (11.2 vs 6.4 years, respectively) and 29.3 % of the patients with T1D increased their CVD risk stratification using VA as a parameter. Still, in the group of T1D patients, women had a higher increase in VA for each 1-year increase in CA than men (1.2 years vs 0.8 years, respectively, p < 0.001). This difference persisted as we compared women with T1D with women in the control group (0.4 years), p = 0.006.
Conclusions
T1D patients have an increased VA, a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. The use of VA age may contribute to the identification of high CVD risk in T1D. In patients with T1D, a younger chronological age, particularly in women, might not be a protective factor for CVD.