Cardiovascular Biomarkers, Cardiac Dysfunction, and Outcomes in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective, Multicenter Study

Although diabetes is a major risk factor for ischemic heart disease or heart failure (HF), and despite the fact that echocardiography has revealed a high prevalence of left ventricular (LV) diastolic and systolic dysfunctions and hypertrophy (1–3), routine screening for cardiovascular disease using echocardiography in asymptomatic patients with type 2 diabetes is not recommended by current guidelines (4). The availability of laboratory markers of cardiovascular risk would substantially contribute to the early and simple screening of patients at increased risk of HF, allowing them to be better targeted with appropriate pharmacological therapies (5). As part of the LV Dysfunction in Diabetes (DYDA) study, we assessed the relations between different laboratory markers, including centrally assayed glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), …