Body mass index correlates with ischemic heart disease and albuminuria in long-standing type 2 diabetes.

AIMS

Comprehensive data describing the effect of obesity on type 2 diabetes outcomes is lacking. We sought to address this by analyzing a tertiary hospital clinical database.

METHODS

We extracted clinical and biochemical data for patients who attended a tertiary hospital diabetes clinic between 1998 and 2011 and were aged less than 65 years. Body mass index (BMI) was correlated with the prevalence of vascular complications and with cardiovascular risk factors.

RESULTS

The means of age and duration of diabetes for the 711 patients (392 men and 319 women) were 53 and 11 years respectively. BMI correlated with the prevalence of ischemic heart disease and, to a lesser degree, albuminuria, but not with the prevalence of cerebrovascular disease, neuropathy, retinopathy or renal function. BMI did not correlate with glycosylated hemoglobin, although obese patients used insulin both more frequently and at higher doses.

CONCLUSIONS

In people with long-standing type 2 diabetes who attend a tertiary hospital outpatient clinic, ischemic heart disease, in contrast to other vascular complications, correlates robustly with BMI. These findings indicate that clinical trials of weight loss in type 2 diabetes should use cardiac endpoints as their primary outcomes.