gms | German Medical Science

MAINZ//2011: 56. GMDS-Jahrestagung und 6. DGEpi-Jahrestagung

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie e. V.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Epidemiologie e. V.

26. - 29.09.2011 in Mainz

Association between glycosylated haemoglobin A1c and endothelial function in an adult non-diabetic population

Meeting Abstract

  • Roberto Lorbeer - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Klaus Empen - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Marcus Dörr - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Maria Arndt - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Sabine Schipf - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Matthias Nauck - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Henri Wallaschofski - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Stephan Felix - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald
  • Henry Völzke - Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald

Mainz//2011. 56. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie (gmds), 6. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Epidemiologie (DGEpi). Mainz, 26.-29.09.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc11gmds159

doi: 10.3205/11gmds159, urn:nbn:de:0183-11gmds1598

Published: September 20, 2011

© 2011 Lorbeer et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Objective: Endothelial dysfunction precedes apparent atherosclerosis in humans and is asso-ciated with a number of cardiovascular risk factors, including Type 2 diabetes. To investigate the impact of long-term glucose homeostasis on endothelial function in an adult non-diabetic population, we analysed the association of serum HbA1c levels with endothelial function.

Methods: We studied cross-sectional data from 1384 subjects (696 women), aged 25 to 85, without diabetes, from the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-1). Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and nitrate-mediated dilation (NMD) measurements of the brachial artery were performed using standardised ultrasound techniques. Linear regression models were carried out to assess the association between serum HbA1c levels and FMD / NMD.

Results: Multivariable analyses disclosed an inverse association between serum HbA1c levels and FMD in women, but not in men. In women without current use of antihypertensive medi-cation, increasing serum HbA1c levels were associated with decreasing FMD levels after ad-justment for age, body mass index, smoking status, hypertension, low-density lipoprotein cho-lesterol, and sex-hormone medication (β = -1.17; 95% CI -2.03; -0.30, p = 0.009). There was an inverse association between serum HbA1c levels and NMD in men (β = -1.68; 95% CI -2.83; -0.52, p = 0.005), but not in women.

Conclusion: We conclude that higher serum HbA1c levels in non-diabetic subjects are in-versely associated with FMD in women without antihypertensive medication, but not in men. The gender-specific aspects concerning the association of HbA1c levels and NMD in this population should be investigated in further studies. Our results support current considerations that subclinical disorders of glucose metabolism measured by serum HbA1c are associated with subclinical cardiovascular diseases detected by FMD, especially in women.