NEW STUDY BY LDS HOSPITAL CARDIAC RESEARCHERS FINDS HEART PATIENTS WITH ELEVATED BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS MORE LIKELY TO DIE
SALT LAKE CITY -- Diabetes is a known risk factor for mortality in patients with heart disease. Now a major new study by cardiac researchers at Intermountan Health Care's LDS Hospital has found heart disease patients who are not diabetic, but who have moderately elevated blood glucose levels, are also at significantly higher risk for death.
The study of more than 1,500 heart disease patients is one of the first to link increased mortality risk in cardiac patients whose blood glucose levels are below the 126 milligrams per deciliter threshold presently used to diagnose diabetes mellitus.
The LDS Hospital research team will present results of the study on Monday, November, 13, at the American Heart Association's 73rd annual Scientific Session in New Orleans.
"One of the objectives of the study was to evaluate the severity and prevalence of more modest glucose metabolism abnormalities in non-diabetic patients with coronary artery disease," says Kirti Salunkhe, MD, a cardiac researcher at LDS Hospital and principal investigator of the study. "Our data showed that moderate elevations of glucose is not only common among these patients, but that it is associated with a much higher mortality rate than patients whose glucose levels are completely normal."
Researchers studied 1,575 heart disease patients who underwent cardiac intervention procedures at LDS Hospital during a six year period. Patients were then grouped into four categories:
o those previously diagnosed with diabeteso those not clinically diagnosed with diabetes, but with high glucose blood levels (over 126 mg/dsl)o those with moderate glucose blood levels ( between 110 and 126 mg/dsl) o and those with low glucose blood levels (below 110 mg/dsl)
After a nearly three year clinical follow up, researchers found an 11 percent mortality rate for both previously diagnosed diabetic heart disease patients and undiagnosed patients with glucose levels over 126 mg/dsl. Patients with moderate levels of glucose (110-126 mg/dsl) had an 8.5 percent mortality rate compared to a 1.7 percent mortality rate for patients whose glucose levels were normal, or below 110 mg/dsl.
"The prevalence of patients with heart disease who have moderate to high levels of glucose appears to be significant," said Dr. Salunkhe. "Some 60 percent of patients in our study showed evidence of glucose metabolism abnormalities that resulted in increased mortality risk. Whether non-diabetic heart patients with milder abnormalities of glucose metabolism might benefit from anti-diabetic therapy remains to be seen."
"The next step of this investigation will likely be to look at insulin levels in these heart patients with mild fasting glucose elevations in an attempt to further understand and stratify the cardiovascular risk found in these patients." said Dr. J. Brent Muhlestein, Director of Cardiology Research at LDS Hospital and an investigator in the study.
Members of the LDS Hospital research team include: Salunkhe; Muhlestein; Tami L. Bair; Benjamin D. Horne; Sunni K. Kim; Chloe A. Allen Maycock; Loren P. Budge; David M. Lewis; Noal I. Hart; Dale G. Renlund; and Jeffrey L. Anderson.
Cardiac researchers from LDS Hospital will present results from six different heart studies for peer review during the weeklong AHA conference, a remarkable feat for a private teaching hospital, says Dr. Muhlestein.
"We are very proud of our research efforts and the application of clinical science to improve the treatment of heart disease, which remains the number one killer in the Western World," he says.
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Media Note: Members of the research team will be available for interviews through Friday, November 10. They are leaving for the AHA Scientific Session in New Orleans on Saturday, November 11.
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