Abstract 8912: The Ceramide- and Phosphatidylcholine- Based Coronary Event Risk Test2 (CERT2) and Cardiovascular Mortality in Men and Women with Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Introduction: The recently introduced Coronary Event Risk Test version 2 (CERT2) is a validated cardiovascular risk predictor score that uses circulating ceramide and phosphatidylcholine concentrations. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that CERT2 hat the power to predict cardiovascular mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Methods: Prospectively, out of 280 male and 121 female patients with T2DM we recorded 55 cardiovascular deaths in men and 19 in women during a mean follow-up time of 7.6±3.6 and 8.1±3.4 years respectively. Results: Overall, cardiovascular survival decreased with increasing CERT2 risk categories (figure 1). In Cox regression models, CERT2 significantly predicted the incidence of cardiovascular mortality in male patients with T2DM (unadj. HR 1.82 [1.39-2.37] per standard deviation; p<0.001), the unadj. HR in women was 1.36 [0.83-2.22]; p=0.228). After adjustment for age, BMI, current smoking, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, hypertension, and statin use the HR in men was 1.73 [1.31-2.29]; p<0.001) and in 1.40 [083-2.36]; p=0.210 women. Interaction terms CERT2 x gender were non-significant both in univariate analysis (p=0.354) and after multivariate adjustment (p=0.359). Conclusions: We conclude that sex does not significantly impact the association of CERT2 with cardiovascular mortality in patients with T2DM.