Report on hyperglycemia in middle-aged male Japanese National Railways workers

Abstract

In a population study of railway employees in Japan, baseline examination was performed on 4847 men age 40, 45 and 50 in 1975. In order to study significance of asymptomatic hyperglycemia for cardiovascular disease, analysis focused on men with no prior diagnosis of diabetes. Assessment of frequency of ECG abnormalities at various levels of glucose was made both excluding and including the large number of men on antihypertensive medication. Prevalence of definite MI in this population was too low to permit any conclusion about possible association with asymptomatic hyperglycemia. However, all other ECG abnormalities indicative of coronary heart disease were more frequent at higher glucose levels. The association was seen in univariate as well as multivariate analysis, both when treated hypertensives were included and excluded. Five-year mortality follow-up is being undertaken to determine prognostic meaning of the observed association.