Abstract
BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) is reported to be higher in elderly diabetics. Serum heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) is a serum marker of myocardial ischemia. We aimed to investigate the association between serum H-FABP level and conventional cardiovascular risk factors, inflammatory markers and subclinical atherosclerosis in elderly diabetics without overt CVD.Patients and methodsA total of 50 elderly diabetic patients without overt CVD and 30 age-, sex- and body mass index (BMI)-matched healthy controls were enrolled. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters, serum H-FABP, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), fibrinogen and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) were measured. Logistic regression analyses (adjustments for age, sex, hypertension, smoking, diabetes, BMI, blood pressure, lipid, blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c, hs-CRP and fibrinogen) were performed to evaluate the association between H-FABP and cardiovascular risk factors and atherosclerosis indices.ResultsSerum fibrinogen (421.50±85.52 mg/dL vs 319.17±30.77 mg/dL, p=0.023), CIMT (0.70±0.12 mm vs 0.59±0.06 mm, p<0.001) and hs-CRP (5.72±4.50 mg/dL vs 1.60±0.72 mg/dL, p<0.001) were significantly higher in diabetic patients than controls. The mean serum H-FABP level did not differ between groups (1571.79±604.60 ng/mL vs 1500.25±463.35 ng/mL, p=0.905). H-FABP was positively correlated with fibrinogen (r2=0.473, p<0.001), hs-CRP (r2=0.323, p=0.003) and CIMT (r2=0.467, p<0.001). After full adjustments, the serum H-FABP level was independently associated with an increase in the fibrinogen level (odds ratio [OR] =4.21, 95% confidence level [CI] =1.49–11.90).ConclusionSerum H-FABP was similar in the elderly diabetic patients without known CVD when compared with the nondiabetic control group. H-FABP does not possess a high diagnostic value as a cardiovascular marker when used alone; however, it may add supplementary information in patients with a high fibrinogen level.
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