High blood sugar levels increase CV risk in elderly diabetics: Study
Spain: HbA1c>7%, a measure of average blood sugar may increase the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in diabetes patients over 70 years of age, a recent study has found. The results of the study, published in the journal Primary Care Diabetes, emphasize on the importance of glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels on the occurrence of cardiovascular events in older diabetic patients.
Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) is a measure of an overall picture of what the average blood sugar levels have been over a period of weeks/months.If the blood sugar levels have been high over recent weeks, the hemoglobin A1c test will be higher.
Blood sugar is commonly considered too high if it is higher than 130 mg/dl before a meal or higher than 180 mg/dl two hours after the first bite of a meal. However, most of the signs and symptoms of high blood sugar don't appear until the blood sugar level is higher than 250 mg/dl.
Domingo Orozco-Beltrán, Miguel Hernández University, Spain, and colleagues conducted this study with an aim to analyze the relationship between HbA1c levels, blood sugar and MACE risk in diabetes patients over 70 years of age.
The researchers conducted prospective study of diabetes subjects using electronic health records from the universal public health system in the Valencian Community, Spain, 2008–2012. Men and women aged ≥ 70 years with diabetes who underwent routine health examinations in primary care, were included. In total 5016 subjects were included whit a mean age of 75.1 years (46.7% men).
Primary endpoint was the incidence of MACE: all-cause mortality and/or hospital admission due to coronary heart disease or stroke.
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Key findings of the study include:
- During an average follow-up of 49 months (4.1 years), 807 (16.1%) MACE were recorded.
- The incidence of MACE was 20.6 per 1000-person-years.
- Variables significantly associated to the incidence of MACE were male gender (HR: 1.61), heart failure (HR: 2.26), antiplatelet therapy (HR: 1.39), oral antidiabetic treatment (HR: 0.74), antithrombotics (HR: 1.79), while age, creatinine, HbA1c and peripheral arterial disease were time-depend associated variables.
"These results highlights the importance of HbA1c level in the incidence of cardiovascular events in older diabetic patients," concluded the authors.
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The study, "The influence of hemoglobin A1c levels on cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in people with diabetes over 70 years of age. A prospective study," is published in the journal Primary Care Diabetes.
