Association between Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy and Coronary Artery Lesions in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes
Lei Liu, Qiansheng Wu, Hong Yan, Baoxian Chen, Xi‐Long Zheng, Qiang Zhou
Abstract
Objective. Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a common and serious complication of diabetes mellitus with various systemic involvements, such as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. We aimed to evaluate the association between CAN and coronary artery lesions in patients with type 2 diabetes. Research Design and Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 104 patients with type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD). We evaluated heart rate variability (HRV) parameters (SDANN, SDNN, and pNN50) to assess cardiac autonomic function. The severity of coronary lesions was assessed by the Gensini scores and the number of affected vessels. Correlation analyses between HRV parameters and the severity of coronary lesions and clinical parameters were performed. Results. Spearman’s correlation analysis showed a significant negative correlation between SDANN and Gensini scores ( <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><a:mi>r</a:mi><a:mo>=</a:mo><a:mo>−</a:mo><a:mn>0.22</a:mn></a:math> , <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><c:mi>P</c:mi><c:mo>=</c:mo><c:mn>0.03</c:mn></c:math> ). Interestingly, this finding remained significant after adjusting for clinical covariates ( <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><e:mi>r</e:mi><e:mo>=</e:mo><e:mo>−</e:mo><e:mn>0.23</e:mn></e:math> , <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"><g:mi>P</g:mi><g:mo>=</g:mo><g:mn>0.03</g:mn></g:math> ). However, there was no association between HRV parameters and the severity of coronary lesions as assessed by the number of affected vessels. Clinical parameters were not significantly correlated with HRV parameters (all <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5"><i:mi>P</i:mi><i:mo>></i:mo><i:mn>0.05</i:mn></i:math> ). Conclusions. Cardiac autonomic neuropathy might be related to the degree of coronary atheromatous burden in patients with type 2 diabetes. Screening for cardiac autonomic neuropathy might potentially be beneficial in the risk stratification of patients with type 2 diabetes.