Elevated heart rate increases microalbuminuria risk in diabetics, finds study
Taiwan: Increased resting heart rate is associated with an increased risk of microalbuminuria development in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients, finds a recent study in the journal Diabetic Medicine.
Microalbuminuria is an indicative of chronic kidney disease and adverse cardiovascular events. Studies have showed elevated resting heart rate to be a risk factor for microalbuminuria in cardiovascular disease patients but its role in the microalbuminuria development in T2D patients is not clarified yet. Y.K. Chang, Jenteh Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Miaoli, Taiwan, and colleagues therefore investigated the relationship between resting heart rate and new‐onset microalbuminuria in type 2 diabetes.
The prospective cohort study enrolled a total of 788 people from a glycemic control trial in Taiwan. The resting heart rate and other covariates were measured at baseline. Microalbuminuria was defined as a fasting urine albumin‐to‐creatinine ratio ≥30 mg/g in two consecutive urine tests. The quartile of resting heart rates, categorized as <70, 70‐74, 75‐80, and >80 beats/min. The association between resting heart rate and risk of microalbuminuria were evaluated using Cox proportional hazard models.
Key findings of the study include:
- During the follow‐up period, 31% people developed microalbuminuria.
- Those who developed microalbuminuria had a longer diabetes duration (median=3.0 vs. 2.0 years), higher rate of hypertension (77% vs. 66%), higher rate of ACE inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker treatment (50% vs. 38%), and higher baseline HbA1c level (70 vs. 64 mmol/mol, 8.6 vs. 8.0 %).
- After adjusting for demographics, metabolic profiles, and inflammatory markers, developing microalbuminuria was significantly associated with baseline resting heart rate of 70‐74, 75‐80, and >80 beats/min (with hazard ratios of 2.05, 2.10, and 1.62, respectively) compared to resting heart rates <70 beats/min.
- An average increased risk of microalbuminuria for increment of 10 beats/min was about 24% among those with hypertension (with hazard ratios of 1.24 in the multivariable Cox model).
"Our results showed resting heart rate may be an associative risk factor for developing microalbuminuria in type 2 diabetes," concluded the authors.
"The relationship between resting heart rate and new‐onset microalbuminuria in people with type 2 diabetes: An eight‐year follow‐up study," is published in the journal Diabetic Medicine.
DOI: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/dme.14436
