New clusters of type 2 diabetes mellitus and their outcomes: relation between pharmacological treatment and previous cardiovascular events

Abstract

Abstract Background Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is the most common form of diabetes in adults, with 90% to 95% of cases. This study aims to establish clusters and have knowledge about the relationship between previous cardiovascular events and pharmacological treatment for T2DM. Methods 191 participants (EG) with T2DM with the average of 70.3 years (SD = 8.3) and 36 with pre-diabetes (CG) with an average of 62 years (SD = 10.3) who participated in clinical trials at Clinical Research Unit in Cardiology of Coimbra Hospital and Universitary Centre without cognitive difficulties, were divided in 5 different clusters. These were established based on six different variables: body mass index (BMI), age of each individual, age at diagnosis of DMT2, glycated haemoglobin value (HbA1c), homeostatic model that estimates the function of β cells (HOMA2-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA2-IR). Results Cluster 1 presented pre-diabetic individuals (15.9%), while diabetic individuals were divided into clusters 2 (1.8%), 3 (17.6%), 4 (21.1%) and 5 (43.6%). Regarding the study of the prevalence of previous cardiovascular events, the majority of individuals present in the different clusters had history of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). As for the prevalence of pharmacological treatment for DMT2, it was found that metformin was the most used drug. It was observed a relationship between previous AMI and metformin administration in clusters 3 (P = 0.0027; P < 0.05) and 5 (P = 0.0059; P < 0.05). Conclusions It was possible to create different clusters in a sample of the Portuguese population and to observe the existence of dependency relationships between different previous cardiovascular events and pharmacological treatment.