Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between serum levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). This was a prospective cross-sectional study. One-hundred and four consecutive patients with DM2 were given lateral lumbar X-rays in order to quantify abdominal aortic calcification (AAC). Circulating levels of AGEs and classical cardiovascular risk factors were determined. Clinical history was also registered. Patients with higher AGEs values had higher grades of aortic calcification and higher numbers of diabetic-related complications. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that being older, male and having high levels of AGEs and triglycerides were the independent risk factors associated to moderate-severe AAC when compared to no-mild AAC. Our results suggest that AGEs plays a role in the pathogenesis of aortic calcifications. In addition, the measurement of AGEs levels may be useful for assessing the severity of AAC in the setting of diabetic complications.
Highlights
Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the leading cause of death in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) in Western countries and represents a major burden on morbidity, quality of life and health resources
Our study reports that serum levels of a pool of circulating advanced glycation end products (AGEs) determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) positively
We provide evidence that serum levels of AGEs positively correlate with aortic calcification (AAC) in patients with DM2
Summary
Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the leading cause of death in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) in Western countries and represents a major burden on morbidity, quality of life and health resources. The identification of patients with DM2 at a high risk of a CV event is important to develop early interventions and prevention strategies. Several studies have suggested that abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) increases the risk of major CV events in patients with DM2 [2,3,4]. AAC has been related to severe coronary artery calcification and cardiovascular outcomes specially in patients with DM2 and chronic kidney disease [5,6]. It has been reported that AAC predicts major CV events after an acute coronary syndrome and predicts health care costs in older men independent of CV disease status as well [7,8]. Detection and scoring AAC could improve the clinical identification of patients with DM2 at risk of developing major CV events
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