Browsing by Author "Forsblom, Carol"

The fact that individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease and premature death, can only partly be explained by traditional risk factors. Interestingly, T1D is accompanied by arterial stiffening that correlates with microvascular and macrovascular complications. The aim of this study was to find out whether arterial stiffness predicts all-cause mortality in individuals with T1D. Augmentation index (AIx), a measure of arterial pulse wave reflections, is used to estimate stiffness in the resistance arteries and can be determined non-invasively from pulse wave analysis by applanation tonometry. The data consisted of 906 individuals with T1D from the FinnDiane Study that have been examined for arterial stiffness, cardiovascular risk factors and diabetic complications at baseline between 2001 and 2015. After a median follow-up of 8.2 (5.7-9.7) years, 67 individuals had died according to mortality data from Statistics Finland. They had higher baseline AIx (28 [21-33] vs. 19 [9-27] %, P < 0.001) compared to those alive. This association was independent of related risk factors (age, sex, BMI, HbA1c, triglycerides, renal function and past cardiovascular events) in Cox regression analysis (hazard ratio 1.042 [1.007-1.078], P = 0.017). Arterial stiffness estimated by AIx independently predicted all-cause mortality in T1D. Promising pharmacological agents counteracting arterial stiffness include inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and sodium-glucose co-transporter 2, and research data on their effect in individuals with T1D is constantly growing. Our finding suggests that detecting early arterial stiffening individuals with T1D could be useful in targeting a more aggressive treatment for high-risk individuals.