Long-term increase in fasting blood sugar may raise risk of cardiac arrest in diabetes patients: Study

The study led to the following findings:

· The researchers analyzed 2,801,153 people, and the mean follow-up duration was 6.33 years.

· Compared with the euglycemic group (− 20 ≤ ΔFBS < 20), the 20 ≤ ΔFBS < 40, 40 ≤ ΔFBS < 100, and ΔFBS ≥ 100 groups had increased SCA risks of 25% (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.25), 66% (adjusted HR = 1.66), and 2.9-fold (adjusted HR = 2.85), respectively.

· The association between ΔFBS and SCA was maintained in people with DM but not those without DM.

· Sex, blood pressure, age, and presence of heart failure did not affect the association between ΔFBS and SCA.

· An overtime decrease in ΔFBS was not tied with reduced SCA risk: the adjusted HR was 1.11 for the ΔFBS < –40 group and 1.12 for the − 40 ≤ ∆FBS < − 20 group.

The study showed that a long-term increase in fasting blood sugar increases the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. "This association was not dependent on confounders and maintained among several subgroups," the researchers wrote. "However, a long-term decrease in FBS was not associated with a reduced SCA risk."

"Whether euglycemia maintenance or FBS reduction can reduce the SCA risk should be tested in future trials," they concluded.

Reference:

Kim, Y.G., Roh, SY., Jeong, J.H. et al. Long-term increase in fasting blood glucose is associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest. Cardiovasc Diabetol 22, 38 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-023-01764-0