Diabetes independent risk factor for acute cerebral infarction in hypertensive patients

China: A team of researchers have highlighted that diabetes mellitus is an independent risk factor of acute cerebral infarction (ACI) in patients with primary hypertension.

The study results are published in the Irish Journal of Medical Science.

Hypertension is one of the prominent and leading risk factors for developing the silent or symptomatic cerebrovascular disease. For primary and secondary prevention of stroke, the diagnosis and control of hypertension are the main strategies.

Considering this, a team of researchers led by Dr Deliang Zheng from the Department of Laboratory, People's Hospital of Honghuagang District, Guizhou Province, China, explored the risk factors of ACI in primary hypertension patients.

The study included patients admitted to Honghuagang District people's Hospital, Zunyi City (January 2020 -December 2020), diagnosed with primary hypertension and ACI. MRI did the confirmation to the diagnosis.

The conclusive points of the study are:

• The control group was primary hypertension patients (concurrent).

• Sex, age, smoking, drinking, lab investigations and other complications were the analysed risk factors.

• There were three hundred patients and 117 cases with hypertensive ACI and hypertension.

• ACI group patients had higher glycosylated haemoglobin, D-dimer and FDPs as compared to the control group patients with a P value of < 0.05.

• There was an association between diabetes mellitus and ACI in primary hypertension patients with OR of 1.452 and a P value of 0.004. This was significant.

The researchers have concluded that poor blood glucose control in pre-morbid diabetes mellitus is associated with ACI occurrence. In ACI patients with primary hypertension, diabetes mellitus is an independent risk factor.

Further reading:

Zheng, D., Li, X. & Fu, Y. Risk factors of acute cerebral infarction in patients with primary hypertension. Ir J Med Sci (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-022-03206-4