Making sense of subclinical cardiac alterations in patients with diabetes

Manan  Pareek; Michael Hecht  Olsen

doi:10.17305/bjbms.2019.4349

Authors

Manan Pareek Department of Cardiology, North Zealand Hospital, Hillerød, Denmark; Department of Internal Medicine, Yale New Haven Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0867-5825
Michael Hecht Olsen Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Holbaek Hospital, Holbaek, Denmark

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17305/bjbms.2019.4349

Keywords:

Body mass index, diabetes mellitus type 1, echocardiography, diastolic heart failure, left ventricular hypertrophy

Abstract

Patients with diabetes are prone to develop a distinct primary myocardial condition, diabetic cardiomyopathy, placing them at an increased risk for heart failure [1-3]. This occurs independently of hypertension, coronary artery disease, and other established causes of heart failure. Pertinent findings include increased mass, concentric changes, and diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle [4,5]. Such adverse remodeling is common among patients with diabetes and appears to be strongly associated with its duration, suggesting a role for persistent metabolic stress [6-8]. However, which exact components of the diabetic syndrome determine these cardiac alterations is not clear. Moreover, most studies have investigated patients with type 2 diabetes, and it is uncertain whether patients with type 1 diabetes experience similar myocardial changes.

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