Smoking Is a Risk Factor of Coronary Heart Disease through HDL-C in Chinese T2DM Patients: A Mediation Analysis

Prevalence of very high cardiovascular disease risk in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A population-based cross-sectional screening study

AIM

The 2019 ESC/EASD guidelines categorize cardiovascular disease risk (CVD) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Assessing CVD risk is necessary to identify individuals at very high risk of CVD, enabling tailored and precise intervention for this high-risk population. This study aims to evaluate the severity of a very high risk for CVD stratification among patients with type 2 DM (T2DM) across different regions in China.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional screening study from 1 January 2020 to 30 December 2022. Disease duration, body mass index (BMI), targeted organ damage, such as atherosclerotic heart disease, proteinuria, impaired renal function, left ventricular hypertrophy, retinopathy and known CVD risk factors, were collected from diabetic patients by professionally trained physicians. The risk of CV in patients with DM was categorized into two groups: very high risk and others, according to the 2019 ESC/EASD guidelines.

RESULTS

In total, 1 870 720 participants from 1669 hospitals in 30 provinces of China, excluding Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, were enrolled from 2020 to 2022, among whom 67.50% of patients with T2DM were at very high risk for CVD. The proportions of very high-risk T2DM were higher in Northeast China (75.82%), Central China (73.65%) and Southwest China (72.66%), while the lowest prevalence of very high-risk T2DM was found in Southern China (60.15%). The multivariate binary logistic regression analyses suggested that the category of very high risk for CVD is associated with age [odds ratio (OR) = 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04-1.04; p < .0001], BMI (OR = 1.07; 95% CI: 1.07-1.07; p < .0001), duration of DM (OR = 1.05; 95% CI: 1.05-1.05; p < .0001), hypertension (OR = 3.75; 95% CI: 3.72-3.78; p < .0001), dyslipidaemia (OR = 5.22; 95% CI: 5.18-5.27; p < .0001) and smoking (OR = 2.92; 95% CI: 2.89-2.95; p < .0001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study represented the largest observational study of CVD risk assessment in patients with T2DM in China. The CVD risk situation of patients with diabetes in China is critical, and comprehensive control and management of CVD risk factors, such as hypertension, BMI and dyslipidaemia, in patients with DM need to be strengthened in patients with T2DM in China.

Trends in cigarette smoking and the risk of incident cardiovascular disease among Asian American, Pacific Islander, and multiracial populations

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States, and rates of CVD incidence vary widely by race and ethnicity. Cigarette smoking is associated with increased risk of CVD. The purpose of the study was: 1) to examine smoking prevalence over time across Asian and Pacific Islander (API) and multi-race API subgroups; 2) to determine whether the CVD risk associated with smoking differed among these subgroups.

Methods

We identified patients belonging to 7 single race/ethnicity groups, 4 multi-race/ethnicity groups, and a non-Hispanic White (NHW) comparison group at two large health systems in Hawaii and California. We estimated annual smoking prevalence from 2011 through 2018 by group and gender. We examined incidence of CVD events by smoking status and race/ethnicity, and computed hazard ratios for CVD events by age, gender, race/ethnicity, census block median household income, census block college degree, and study site using Cox regression.

Results

Of the 12 groups studied, the Asian Indian and Chinese American groups had the lowest smoking prevalence, and the Asian + Pacific Islander multiracial group had the highest smoking prevalence. The prevalence of smoking decreased from 2011 to 2018 for all groups. Multi-race/ethnicity groups had higher risk of CVD than the NHW group. There was no significant interaction between race/ethnicity and smoking in models predicting CVD, but the association between race/ethnicity and CVD incidence was attenuated after adjusting for smoking status.

Conclusions

There is considerable heterogeneity in smoking prevalence and the risk of CVD among API subgroups.

Creatinine clearance is key to solving the enigma of sex difference in in-hospital mortality after STEMI: Propensity score matching and mediation analysis

BACKGROUND

The precise impact of sex difference on in-hospital mortality in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients are unclear, and the studies are no longer consistent. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the impact of sex differences in a cohort of STEMI patients.

METHODS

We analyzed the data of 2647 STEMI patients enrolled in the Kermanshah STEMI Cohort from July 2017 to May 2020. To accurately clarify the relationship between sex and hospital mortality, propensity score matching (PSM) and causal mediation analysis was applied to the selected confounder and identified intermediate variables, respectively.

RESULTS

Before matching, the two groups differed on almost every baseline variable and in-hospital death. After matching with 30 selected variables, 574 male and female matched pairs were significantly different only for five baseline variables and women were no longer at greater risk of in-hospital mortality (10.63% vs. 9.76%, p = 0.626). Among the suspected mediating variables, creatinine clearance (CLCR) alone accounts for 74% (0.665/0.895) of the total effect equal to 0.895(95% CI: 0.464-1.332). In this milieu, the relationship between sex and in-hospital death was no longer significant and reversed -0.233(95% CI: -0.623-0.068), which shows the full mediating role of CLCR.

CONCLUSION

Our research could help address sex disparities in STEMI mortality and provide a consequence. Moreover, CLCR alone can fully explain this relationship, which can highlight the importance of CLCR in predicting the short-term outcomes of STEMI patients and provide a useful indicator for clinicians.

Knockdown of lncRNA ENST00000609755.1 Confers Protection Against Early oxLDL-Induced Coronary Heart Disease

Background: This study investigated the association between long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and coronary heart disease (CHD) and further elucidated the potential biological roles of lncRNAs in CHD pathogenesis.

Methods: A case-control study (590 patients and 590 controls) was conducted from February 2017 and March 2019 in Fuzhou, China. Environmental factors were investigated using questionnaires and physical examinations. Five representative lncRNAs were screened using lncRNA microarray (peripheral blood in 5 cases and 5 controls) and further verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (peripheral blood leukocyte in 100 cases and 100 controls). Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) was used to induce a human coronary artery endothelial cell (HCAECs) injury model, and loss of function was used to elucidate the role of lncRNA ENST00000609755.1 (lnc-MICALL2-2) in oxLDL-induced HCAECs injury.

Results: A total of 320 lncRNAs were found dysregulated in CHD patients (fold change> 2, p < 0.05). The results of a discovery microarray, population verification and HCAEC experiments suggested the lnc-MICALL2-2 is upregulated in CHD subjects and in an oxLDL-induced HCAECs injury model. Conversely, lnc-MICALL2-2 inhibition in vitro attenuated the effects of oxLDL on HCAECs morphology, proliferation, and apoptosis.

Conclusion: Elevated expression of lnc-MICALL2-2 is an independent risk factor for CHD, and knockdown subsequently confers protection against early pathological processes of oxLDL-induced CHD.

Use of lipid parameters to identify apparently healthy men at high risk of arterial stiffness progression

Background

Dyslipidemia contributes to the development and progression of arterial stiffness. We aimed to identify the most informative measures of serum lipids and their calculated ratios in terms of arterial stiffness progression risk.

Methods

Total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) of 659 healthy males (47.4 ± 10.7 years) were measured at baseline. Values for non-HDL-C, TC/HDL-C, TG/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C, and non-HDL-C/HDL-C were calculated. BaPWV was re-performed after 4.1 years follow-up. Elevated baPWV was defined as baPWV ≥ 1400 cm/s.

Results

Over the follow-up period, the mean baPWV value increased from 1340 cm/s to 1410 cm/s, and 331 individuals increased/persisted with high baPWV (outcome 1). Among the 448 subjects who had normal baseline baPWV, 100 incident elevated baPWV occurred (outcome 2). Only baseline logTG (OR 1.64 [95% CI: 1.14–2.37] for outcome 1; 1.89 [1.14–3.17] for outcome 2) and logTG/HDL-C (1.54 [1.15–2.10] for outcome 1; 1.60 [1.05–2.45] for outcome 2) were significantly associated with arterial stiffness progression after adjusting for confounding factors. Adding logTG or logTG/HDL-C to age and blood pressure improved the accuracy of risk predictions for arterial stiffness progression. These associations remained significant when lipids were analyzed as categorical variables.

Conclusions

Baseline serum TG and TG/HDL-C were independently associated with increases in/persistently high baPWV and incident elevated baPWV, and they performed more effectively than other lipid variables in identifying healthy men at high risk of arterial stiffness progression.