Importance of metabolic factors in determining cardiovascular risk in romanian patients with type 1 diabetes: A pilot study

Abstract

A major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with type 1 diabetes is cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular risk in these patients should be periodically evaluated, and the Steno T1 Risk Engine can be a useful tool in determining five- and ten-year cardiovascular risk in patients with type 1 diabetes. The current aim of this study was to evaluate the link between cardiovascular risk in a population of Romanian patients with type 1 diabetes and metabolic control. The current study is a non-interventional, population-based, retrospective, single-center study in which 38 patients were enrolled on a consecutive case basis from the Diabetes Clinic of the Pius Brinzeu Emergency County Hospital Timisoara. Anthropological and laboratory tests were collected in order to cluster patients into three cardiovascular risk categories. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism Software version 10.4.0. The threshold for statistical significance in this study was a p-value under 0.05. In most cases, patients were at a medium five-year cardiovascular risk (47.37%), while in the case of ten-year cardiovascular risk, most patients were in the high category (78.38%). No difference was found in cardiovascular risk levels between male and female patients, and achieving glucose control was shown to improve cardiovascular risk significantly more than achieving lipid control. Improving glucose and lipid control by achieving and maintaining the target for HbA1c and LDLc, respectively, reduces cardiovascular risk, with the former having a greater magnitude to the impact.