[Features of Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Target Organ Damage in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 and Arterial Hypertension].

AIM: to investigate relationship between arterial hypertension (AH) and risk factors / subclinical damage of target organs in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). METHODS: We included into this clinical epidemiological study 528 patients with DM2 (30.5 % men, 69.5 % women; mean age 54.1±0.3 years; 80.3 % with AH, 19.7 % without AH), who answered questions of the ARIC study questionnaire related to risk factors. Also, we studied features of target organ damage and laboratory indicators. RESULTS: In comparison with normotensives patients with AH more frequently had ischemic heart disease (12.7±1.6 % vs. 5.8±2.3 %, p<0.05), chronic heart failure (CHF) (30.9±2.2 % vs. 9.6±2.9 %, p<0.001), atherosclerosis of vessels of lower extremities (69.8±2.2 % vs. 53.8±4.9 %, p<0.01) and cerebral vessels (50.9±2.4 % vs. 28.8±4.4 %, p<0.001), history of stroke (5.0±1.1 % vs. 0 %, p<0.05), hypertonic angiopathy (14.5±1.8 % vs. 6.5±2.5 %, p<0.05), low level of high density lipoprotein (87.3±2.2 % vs. 74.5±6.4 %, p<0.05), electro- and echocardiographic signs of left ventricular hypertrophy (75.6±2.1 % vs. 45.4±5.1 %, p<0.001; 61.1±2.6 % vs. 24.4±4.7 %, p<0.001, respectively), lowering of left ventricular ejection fraction (12.5±1.7 % vs. 7.8±2.8 %, p<0.001), diastolic disfunction of the left ventricle (52.6±2.7 % vs. 23.2±4.7 %, p<0.001), atherosclerosis of the aorta (38.0±2.6 % vs. 20.7±4.5 %, p<0.01), lowering of the ankle-brachial index (left - 29.8±2.3 % vs. 14.9±3.5 %, p<0.01; right - 31.5±2.3 % vs. 9.9±3.0 %, p<0.001, respectively), increased intima-media thickness of the right carotid artery (84.6±5.0 % vs. 60.0±11.0 %, p<0.05). CONCLUSION: In patients with type 2 diabetes and AH, in order to develop strategy of macro- and microvascular complications prevention, it is necessary to conduct early screening of risk factors and subclinical damage of target organs.

Cardiac Risk Assessment in Kidney Transplant Candidates: Clinical Usefulness of Different Guidelines.

Although cardiovascular (CV) assessment is recommended to minimize perioperative risk in all potential kidney transplant recipients, the utility and reliability of various assessment methods are not well established. In this study, we investigated the CV evaluations and outcomes of standardized CV assessment protocols (Lisbon and American Society of Transplantation [AST]) in potential kidney transplant recipients. Data were analyzed for 266 end-stage renal disease patients (mean age 45.4 ± 13 years, female-to-male ratio 126:140) accepted for kidney transplantation wait-listing. Patients were classified as low and high cardiac risk according to their first cardiac evaluation. Major cardiovascular events (CVEs) and deaths were recorded. At the end of follow-up (median 639 days), 72 (27.1%) patients underwent kidney transplantation. A total of 49 patients (18.4%) had CVEs and 42 (15.8%) patients died. Being over 45 years of age and having dialysis vintage over 1 year were found to be independent risk factors for CVEs. Forty-eight out of 60 high-risk patients evaluated with noninvasive tests had negative results. Twelve out of these 48 patients had a CVE in due course. Among 10 patients who underwent coronary angiography, 1 had a CVE and 1 died. The sensitivity and specificity of the AST guidelines (area under the curve = 0.647, P = .005, sensitivity 83%, specificity 54%) were higher than Lisbon. In conclusion, the predictive risk factors for CVEs were age over 45 years and dialysis vintage over a year. Our results also suggest that exercise electrocardiography and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy for cardiac evaluation are less sensitive in CVE prediction. We recommend clinicians to use the AST guidelines and to prioritize coronary angiography in pretransplant CV assessment.