TITLE:
Endothelial dysfunction: The contribution of diabetes mellitus to the risk factor burden in a high risk population
AUTHORS:
Muluemebet Ketete, Rabia Cherqaoui, Abid R. Maqbool, John Kwagyan, Shichen Xu, Otelio S. Randall
KEYWORDS:
Diabetes; Endothelial Dysfunction; Cardiovascular Risk Factors
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering,
Vol.6 No.6,
June
26,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Background:
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality
in Western societies and are rapidly
becoming a worldwide health problem. African-Americans have increased morbidity and mortality rates from CVD. Our study aimed to assess the effects of the
CVD risk factors burden alone versus with diabetes mellitus in a high riskCVDpopulation. Methods: The two study groups consisted
of thirty seven diabetics and thirty seven non-diabetic African-Americans aged ≥55
years without clinical atherosclerosis having similar cardiovascular risk
factors (age, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, smoking, and body mass index)
except for diabetes mellitus. Brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD),
Nitroglycerin-mediated dilatation (NMD) and carotid intima-media thickness
(IMT) were recorded in all subjects. Results: Endothelial function as
assessed by the brachial artery FMD was significantly impaired in the
diabetic group compared to the non-diabetic group (7.8 ± 5 vs 3.3 ± 4; p =
0.0001). There were no differences in neither Nitroglycerin-mediated
dilatation (NMD) nor carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in the diabetic and non-diabetic groups.
Conclusion: The contribution of diabetes to the development of endothelial
dysfunction in subjects with
clustering of CVD risk factors may be early as indicated by significant
functional changes preceeding structural vascular changes..