2013 Volume 56 Issue 12 Pages 926-931
We studied the relationship between cardiovascular events and the non HDL cholesterol (non HDL-C) levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. A total of 368 patients with no history of cardiovascular disease were followed for a mean of six years. The end points were stroke and cardiac events (acute myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and sudden death). During the follow-up, stroke and cardiac events occurred in 26 and 25 patients, respectively. The non HDL-C levels did not differ significantly between the patients with and without stroke (133.1±40.0 vs. 134.1±37.4 mg/dl, NS); however, they were significantly higher in the patients with cardiac events than in those without (167.2±52.1 mg/dl, p<0.01). The non HDL-C levels were independently related to cardiac events (hazard ratio: 2.02; 95 % CI: 1.42-2.86; every 1-SD). The cutoff level for non HDL-C in relation to cardiac events was≥190 mg/dl according to a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis. The area under the ROC curve for non HDL-C was greater than that for LDL-C; however, the difference was not statistically significant (0.708 vs. 0.623, p=0.31). A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that cardiac events occurred significantly earlier in the patients with a non HDL-C level of≥190 mg/dl (p<0.01, log-rank test). Therefore, the non HDL-C level is closely related to the incidence of cardiac events, but not stroke, in patients with type 2 diabetes.
