(Circulation. 2001;103:2668.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.
Clinical Investigation and Reports |
From the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Oakland, Calif.
Correspondence to Carlos Iribarren, MD, MPH, PhD, Division of Research, The Permanente Medical Group, 3505 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94611. E-mail cgi{at}dor.kaiser.org
| Abstract |
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Methods and ResultsA
cohort design was used with baseline between January 1, 1995, and June
30, 1996, and follow-up through December 31, 1997 (median 2.2 years).
Participants were 25 958 men and 22 900 women with (predominantly
type 2) diabetes,
19 years old, with no known history of heart
failure. There were a total of 935 events (516 among men; 419 among
women). After adjustment for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education level,
cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, obesity, use of
ß-blockers and ACE inhibitors, type and duration of
diabetes, and incidence of interim myocardial infarction, each 1%
increase in Hb AIc was associated with an
8% increased risk of heart failure (95% CI 5% to 12%). An Hb
AIc
10, relative to Hb
AIc <7, was associated with 1.56-fold (95% CI
1.26 to 1.93) greater risk of heart failure. Although the association
was stronger in men than in women, no differences existed by heart
failure pathogenesis or hypertension
status.
ConclusionsThese results confirm previous evidence that poor glycemic control may be associated with an increased risk of heart failure among adult patients with diabetes.
Key Words: heart failure diabetes mellitus glycemia hemoglobin
| Introduction |
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Poor glycemic control may also predict macrovascular complications, including coronary heart disease among patients with type 2 diabetes.7 8 Furthermore, recent evidence from the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS), a clinical trial sample, suggests that glycemic control is associated with increased risk of heart failure among patients with type 2 diabetes.9 Heart failure is a chronic condition closely linked to diabetes10 whose prevalence is increasing in the United States.11
The aims of this study were 3-fold: first, to investigate the association between Hb AIc levels and heart failure incidence in a large, population-based sample of adult patients with diabetes; second, to examine whether the association is independent of established coronary and diabetes-related factors; and third, to ascertain whether the association of interest differed by patient sex, heart failure pathogenesis (ie, prior history of ischemic event[s]), and presence of hypertension.
| Methods |
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19 years old received a
health survey that included questions about behavioral, demographic,
and clinical
data.12 13
Obesity was defined as a body mass index
30
kg/m2. Hypertension was ascertained by
self-report. LDL cholesterol was estimated by the
Friedewald equation,14 and
HDL cholesterol was measured by an enzymatic
colorimetric test (PEG-modified enzyme and sulfated
cyclodextrin). Hb AIc levels were measured from
January 1, 1995, through October 31, 1995, by high-performance
liquid chromatography (Diamat, Biorad Laboratories) and
by turbidimetric inhibition immunoassay (Boehringer Mannheim)
between November 1, 1995, and June 30, 1996. The 2 methods were highly
correlated
(r=0.98).15
After exclusion of 3722 known false-positives, 83%
[74 993/(94 024-3722)] of noninstitutionalized, living, active
Diabetes Registry members responded to the survey. The study cohort
consisted of a subset of 69% of survey responders (n=51 680) who had
1 measurement of Hb AIc between January 1,
1995, and June 30, 1996. For patients with >1 measurement of Hb
AIc in that period, only the last measurement
was used. Those who had a previous hospitalization with primary or
secondary diagnosis of heart failure during the 5 years before baseline
were excluded from the analysis (n=2822). The final sample for
analysis comprised 48 858 adult patients with diabetes
(25 958 men and 22 900 women). Follow-up for heart failure
hospitalizations and for mortality from any cause was complete through
December 31, 1997 (median 2.2 years; range <1 year to 2.9 years). The
study protocol was approved by the Kaiser Foundation Institutional
Review Board.
Study End Point
The primary study end point was a composite of
hospitalization for heart failure or death with heart failure as
underlying cause. Incident hospitalizations were captured by use of
automated hospital primary discharge diagnosis of heart failure
(International Classification of Diseases,
9th revision [ICD-9] codes 428.x) or hypertensive heart
disease with heart failure (402.01, 402.11, 402.91) in all health plan
hospitals. Mortality from any cause, including death by heart failure
(same codes as hospitalizations), was ascertained by use of the
California Automated Mortality Linkage
System.16
Previous ischemic event(s) during the 5 years before baseline were ascertained through a search of hospitalizations and/or outpatient diagnoses for ischemic heart disease (410.x to 414.x) and/or ischemic stroke (433.x to 438.x) and/or revascularization procedures, including coronary artery bypass graft surgery (36.1x), percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (36.0x), and carotid endarterectomy (38.12).
To determine the validity of the primary discharge
diagnosis of heart failure in our hospitalization database, we randomly
selected 200 hospital charts of study participants and determined the
extent to which these cases met major and minor Framingham criteria for
heart failure.17 The most
frequently encountered major criteria for heart failure were rales
(86.5%), radiographic cardiomegaly (73%), and acute
pulmonary edema (55%), and the most frequent minor criteria
were bilateral ankle edema (77.5%) and dyspnea on ordinary exertion
(96%). Overall, 92.5% of cases met
2 major and 1 minor heart
failure criteria; 89% met
1 major and 2 minor criteria; and 97% met
either of the 2 definitions above. Thus, the positive predictive value
of heart failure ascertainment by hospital discharge codes was 97%,
and the false-positive rate was 3%. Because we did not review charts
of patients without heart failure, the sensitivity, specificity, and
negative predictive value of the ascertainment method by discharge
diagnosis codes could not be determined.
Because atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is a common cause of heart failure, we also determined the extent to which hospitalization for heart failure was accompanied by either unstable angina (411.1, 411.81, and 411.89) or acute myocardial infarction (410.x).
Statistical Methods
Poisson regression was used to estimate
sex-specific, age-adjusted incidence rates of heart failure (per 1000
person-years) according to the Hb AIc categories
used before: <7%, 7% to <8%, 8% to <9%, 9% to <10%, and
10%.9 Follow-up time was
calculated for each person from baseline to the time of heart failure
hospitalization (2%), death (5%), termination of health plan
membership (9%), or closing date (December 31, 1997) (84%).
Estimation of relative risks associated with categories of Hb
AIc (to assess threshold effects and nonlinear
associations) and for a 1 SD linear increase in Hb
AIc and control for potential confounders were
done by sequential Cox proportional-hazards
models.18 Four models were
considered: Model 1 was age- and sex-adjusted. Model 2 was adjusted for
age, sex, race/ethnicity (black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and
other/unknown, versus white), level of education (less than high
school, some college, and unknown, versus college education or higher),
cigarette smoking (former, current, unknown, versus never), alcohol
consumption (never, former, occasional, light, heavy, and unknown,
versus moderate), self-reported hypertension, obesity, and
cardioprotective medication use at baseline (ACE inhibitor
and ß-blockers). Adjustment for ACE inhibitors was
performed because of trials among patients with heart failure of left
ventricular dysfunction demonstrating reductions in the
risk of death, myocardial infarction, or hospital admission for heart
failure.19 20 21 22
Adjustment for ß-blockers was done on the basis of recent trials
showing that use of ß-blockers in addition to standard therapy
improved left ventricular function, reduced
hospitalizations, and in the case of bisoprolol, long-acting
metoprolol, and carvedilol, improved survival in patients with chronic
heart
failure.23 24 No
adjustment was performed for LDL or HDL cholesterol because
of the large proportion of missing data on these variables.
However, we evaluated the effect of lipid adjustment in a subset of
cohort members with complete LDL and HDL cholesterol
values. Model 3 included additional covariates for diabetes
type/treatment (type 1, type 2 on oral hypoglycemic agents, type 2 on
insulin, and unknown type/treatment, versus type 2 on diet) and
duration of diabetes (5 to 9 years,
10 years, and unknown, versus <5
years). To ascertain the degree to which the increased risk of heart
failure associated with poor glycemic control might be due to an
interim cardiac event, model 4 included a dichotomous variable that
represented incidence of myocardial infarction during
follow-up.
Formal tests for interaction in the Cox models were conducted to assess whether the relationship between Hb AIc (as a continuous variable) and heart failure risk differed by patient sex, history of ischemic event(s), and presence of hypertension. Only the interaction with patient sex was statistically significant (P=0.03), so results stratifying by patient sex are also presented. All statistical analyses were performed with SAS 6.11 (SAS Institute Inc).
| Results |
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The distribution of Hb AIc levels was
comparable in men and women:
22% were in poor glycemic control (ie,
Hb AIc
10%). Women reported more hypertension
and obesity and had a higher prevalence of high LDL than men, whereas
HDL cholesterol was lower in men. Approximately 26% and
9% used ACE inhibitors and ß-blockers, respectively. No
evidence was found that those in poor glycemic control had greater ACE
inhibitor or ß-blocker use (data not shown). The number
of nonfatal myocardial infarctions during follow-up, as ascertained by
primary hospital discharge diagnosis codes 410.x, was 1103 (2.3%), 682
in men (2.6%) and 421 in women (1.8%).
After a median of 2.2 years of follow-up, 516 and 419 incident heart failure events were documented in men and women, respectively. In men, there were 501 hospitalizations with nonfatal heart failure, 9 hospitalizations with fatal heart failure, and 6 deaths by heart failure without hospitalization. In women, there were 411 hospitalizations with nonfatal heart failure, 3 hospitalizations with fatal heart failure, and 5 deaths by heart failure without hospitalization. Of the 924 hospitalizations with heart failure as the principal diagnosis, 825 (89%) did not have unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction as secondary diagnosis, and 99 (11%) had either unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction as secondary diagnosis.
Age-adjusted incidence rates of heart failure increased with
increasing levels of Hb AIc in a monotonic
fashion in both men (P for
linear trend=0.0001) and women
(P for linear trend=0.009)
(Table 2
). Only 2% (11/516) of incident heart failure
events in men and 2% (10/419) in women occurred among patients with
known type 1 diabetes.
|
After adjustment for age and sex, each 1% increase in Hb
AIc was associated with a 12% increased risk of
heart failure (95% CI 8% to 16%)
(Table 3
). Also in age- and sex-adjusted analysis, a
concentration of Hb AIc
10, relative to Hb
AIc <7, was associated with a 1.83-fold (95%
CI 1.48 to 2.25) greater risk of heart failure. Further adjustment for
race/ethnicity, education level, cigarette smoking, alcohol
consumption, hypertension, obesity, ACE inhibitors,
ß-blockers, diabetes type and duration, and interim myocardial
infarction attenuated but did not explain the association.
|
Analysis stratifying by patient sex indicated that
the association was stronger in men than in women
(P for interaction=0.03)
(Table 3
). In the fully adjusted analysis (model 4),
the relative risk associated with a 1% increase in Hb
AIc concentration was 1.12 (95% CI 1.07 to
1.18) in men and 1.04 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.09) in women; a concentration
of Hb AIc
10, relative to Hb
AIc <7, was associated with a 1.8-fold
increased heart failure risk in men compared with a 1.3-fold increased
heart failure risk in women. No significant interactions were found
between Hb AIc and having a history of
ischemic event(s)
(P=0.52) or between Hb
AIc and hypertension status
(P=0.89).
Adjustment for LDL and HDL cholesterol among
those with complete lipid information (n=13 806; 252 events) showed no
attenuation of risk (data not shown). Furthermore, the predictive
strength of Hb AIc was maintained when the
analysis was restricted to the 825 hospitalizations in which
heart failure was the principal diagnosis and there was no secondary
diagnosis of unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction (RR per 1%
increase in Hb AIc 1.09 [95% CI 1.05 to 1.13]
and RR of Hb AIc
10% versus <7% 1.61 [95%
CI 1.29 to 2.03]).
| Discussion |
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Our findings are consistent with 2 interpretations. First, poor glycemic control may simply be a marker of worse patient compliance with blood pressure and lipid medication and of less rigorous physician care. Second, poor glycemic control may be a true risk factor for heart failure.
Poor glycemic control and associated hyperglycemia may be causally related to the development of heart failure by 2 mechanisms: through promotion of atherosclerosis and ensuing coronary artery disease, and through development of a specific diabetic cardiomyopathy (ie, direct damage to the heart muscle).
Hyperglycemia may be linked to atherogenesis through modification of LDL lipoproteins by advanced glycosylation end products,25 endothelial dysfunction,26 increased plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, von Willebrand factor and platelet aggregation,27 and dyslipidemia with increased production of VLDL, low plasma HDL, and high plasma levels of small, dense LDL.28
Clinical-pathological work has described a specific form of cardiomyopathy in patients with diabetes, thought to be caused by microangiopathy29 and by cellular changes in calcium transport and fatty acid metabolism.30 Also, several studies have demonstrated abnormalities of left ventricular mechanical function (primarily diastolic) in patients with diabetes without known coronary artery disease.31
Our study has several limitations. First, the follow-up time was relatively short, but this was compensated by a large sample size. Because the progression to clinical heart failure may be longer than 2 years, it is likely that some diabetic patients in the study had preclinical heart failure at baseline. The likelihood of bias due to disease at baseline was minimized, however, by the exclusion of patients with documented heart failure up to 5 years before baseline. Second, because of the small number of events among them, we were unable to make inferences about the association between glycemic control and heart failure among patients with type 1 diabetes. Third, because the ascertainment of outcome was based on hospitalization and/or death, less severe or subclinical heart failure (ie, not requiring hospitalization or showing asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction) were not considered. Fourth, the analysis was based on a single measurement of Hb AIc, although Hb AIc is indicative of the time-averaged blood glucose concentration over the past 3 months.1 Fifth, we were unable to characterize the severity of heart failure in terms of left ventricular function (ie, ejection fraction) or functional status (ie, New York Heart Association class), because this information was not available in our clinical databases. Finally, the proportion of participants with missing data for lipid values was quite high; nonetheless, adjustment for LDL and HDL cholesterol in subset analysis had only a marginal effect.
Our findings may have important clinical and public health implications. First, although it is yet to be determined by clinical trials, our results suggest that tight glycemic control may potentially reduce the incidence of heart failure. Second, because no Hb AIc threshold could be identified, our data suggest that it might be desirable to achieve levels of glycemia as close to the normoglycemic range as possible (ie, Hb AIc <7%). This potential benefit of tight metabolic control of diabetes should be weighed against existing barriers to glycemic control, including fear of hypoglycemia and, in women, weight gain.32
| Acknowledgments |
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Received December 13, 2000; revision received March 20, 2001; accepted March 21, 2001.
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