Glycaemic control and excess risk of major coronary events in patients with type 2 diabetes: a population-based study.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to investigate the excess risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and death from coronary artery disease (coronary heart disease, CHD) in relation to age, level of glycaemic control and renal complications in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A total of 431 579 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus registered in the Swedish National Diabetes Register from 1 January 1998 to 31 December 2012, and 2 173 620 controls from the general population were included. Cox regression was used to study the excess risk of AMI and CHD. Results: During follow-up of 5.1 years in the diabetes group and 5.4 years in the control group, 36 124 (8.4%) and 115 712 (5.3%) CHD events were registered, with corresponding incidence rates/1000 person-years of 14.64 (95% CI 14.49 to 14.79) and 8.73 (95% CI 8.68 to 8.78), respectively. The HR after adjustment for sex and age was 1.67 (1.65-1.69) which was reduced to 1.42 (1.41-1.44) with further adjustment for level of education, country of birth, diabetes duration and comorbidities. The multivariable-adjusted HR for AMI and CHD death with a time-updated glycated haemoglobin level of 6.9% or lower (≤52 mmol/mol) together with normoalbuminuria and estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥60 mL/min for patients with diabetes compared with controls was 0.95 (95% CI 0.92 to 0.98, p<0.001). Conclusions: In this study, the excess risk of AMI and CHD death was higher for patients with type 2 diabetes compared with controls but converged to that in the general population in patients with on-target HbA1c levels and without renal complications.

Prevalence of primary aldosteronism among patients with type 2 diabetes.

CONTEXT: Diabetes and hypertension coexist in 40%-60% of individuals with type 2 diabetes. The coexistence of these two conditions is associated with increased risk of retinopathy, nephropathy and cardiovascular disease. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of primary aldosteronism (PA) in a general cohort of persons with type 2 diabetes. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study involving six diabetes outpatient clinics in Sweden. PATIENTS: were enrolled individuals with type 2 diabetes between February 2008 and December 2013. MEASUREMENTS: Plasma aldosterone concentrations (PAC pmol/L) and direct renin concentrations (DRC mIU/L) were measured. Patients with increased aldosterone renin ratios (ARR) >65 were further evaluated for PA. RESULTS: Of 578 consecutively screened patients with type 2 diabetes, 27 were treated with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRA) and potassium-sparing diuretics not further evaluated. Among the remaining 551 patients, 38 had increased ARR, including 22 who were clinically indicated for PA tests and 16 who were not further evaluated due to severe comorbidities and old age. There were five (0.93%) patients with confirmed PA after computerized tomography and adrenal venous sampling. Patients with PA had higher systolic blood pressure (P=.032) and lower potassium levels (P=.027) than those without PA. No significant association was found between plasma aldosterone and diabetic complications. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of PA in an unselected cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes is relatively low, and measures of plasma aldosterone are not strong risk factors for micro- and macrovascular diabetic complications.

The relationship between three eGFR formulas and hospitalization for heart failure in 54 486 individuals with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to study the association between renal function and hospitalization for heart failure (HF) in individuals with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Renal function was determined according to three formulas used to estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR): Cockcroft-Gault, modified diet in renal disease (MDRD) and chronic kidney disease epidemiology (CKD-EPI). Proportional hazards regression models adjusted for age, sex, HbA1c , blood pressure, smoking and cardiovascular comorbidities were constructed for each eGFR formula to estimate risk of hospitalization for heart failure. Systematic pairwise likelihood ratio tests of nested models were used to compare the predictive power of each eGFR formula. RESULTS: In 54 486 patients, evaluated over a median follow-up of 7.0 years, a total of 5936 (10.9%) developed heart failure, with an excess risk in all eGFR categories below 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (reference: eGFR >90 mL/min/1.73 m2 ). Hazard ratios ranged from 1.25 to 1.35 for eGFR 45-60 mL/min/1.73 m2 , 1.62 to 1.66 for eGFR 30-45 mL/min/1.73 m2 and 2.18 to 2.52 for eGFR <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 in the three eGFR formulas. In pairwise comparisons, the model with the MDRD variable added significantly more information than the Cockcroft-Gault variable. For the model with the CKD-EPI variable, no clear differences in predictive power for HF hospitalization existed in relation to the other eGFR formulas. CONCLUSION: Patients with type 2 diabetes, with eGFR 45 to 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 , have approximately 25-35% increased risk of hospitalization for HF, increasing with lower eGFR, to 2-2.5 times in those with eGFR <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 . The MDRD formula for calculating eGFR is more predictive of hospitalization for heart failure than the Cockcroft-Gault formula. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Excess Mortality among Persons with Type 2 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND: The excess risks of death from any cause and death from cardiovascular causes among persons with type 2 diabetes and various levels of glycemic control and renal complications are unknown. In this registry-based study, we assessed these risks according to glycemic control and renal complications among persons with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: We included patients with type 2 diabetes who were registered in the Swedish National Diabetes Register on or after January 1, 1998. For each patient, five controls were randomly selected from the general population and matched according to age, sex, and county. All the participants were followed until December 31, 2011, in the Swedish Registry for Cause-Specific Mortality. RESULTS: The mean follow-up was 4.6 years in the diabetes group and 4.8 years in the control group. Overall, 77,117 of 435,369 patients with diabetes (17.7%) died, as compared with 306,097 of 2,117,483 controls (14.5%) (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.15; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14 to 1.16). The rate of cardiovascular death was 7.9% among patients versus 6.1% among controls (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.15). The excess risks of death from any cause and cardiovascular death increased with younger age, worse glycemic control, and greater severity of renal complications. As compared with controls, the hazard ratio for death from any cause among patients younger than 55 years of age who had a glycated hemoglobin level of 6.9% or less (≤52 mmol per mole of nonglycated hemoglobin) was 1.92 (95% CI, 1.75 to 2.11); the corresponding hazard ratio among patients older than 75 years of age or older was 0.95 (95% CI, 0.94 to 0.96). Among patients with normoalbuminuria, the hazard ratio for death among those younger than 55 years of age with a glycated hemoglobin level of 6.9% or less, as compared with controls, was 1.60 (95% CI, 1.40 to 1.82); the corresponding hazard ratio among patients older than 75 years of age or older was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.75 to 0.78), and patients 65 to 75 years of age also had a significantly lower risk of death (hazard ratio, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.84 to 0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Mortality among persons with type 2 diabetes, as compared with that in the general population, varied greatly, from substantial excess risks in large patient groups to lower risks of death depending on age, glycemic control, and renal complications. (Funded by the Swedish government and others.).