Early Markers of Cardiovascular Disease Associated with Clinical Data and Autosomal Ancestry in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study in an Admixed Brazilian Population

Abstract

Patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is a major cause of death in this population. This study investigates early markers of CVD associated with clinical data and autosomal ancestry in T1D patients from an admixed Brazilian population. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 99 T1D patients. The mean age of the study sample was 27.6 years and the mean duration of T1D was 14.4 years. The frequencies of abnormalities of the early markers of CVD were 19.6% in the ankle-brachial index (ABI), 4.1% in the coronary artery calcium score (CACS), and 5% in the carotid Doppler. A significant percentage of agreement was observed for the comparison of the frequency of abnormalities between CACS and carotid Doppler (92.2%, p = 0.041). There was no significant association between the level of autosomal ancestry proportions and early markers of CVD. The ABI was useful in the early identification of CVD in asymptomatic young patients with T1D and with a short duration of disease. Although CACS and carotid Doppler are non-invasive tests, carotid Doppler is more cost-effective, and both have limitations in screening for CVD in young patients with a short duration of T1D. We did not find a statistically significant relationship between autosomal ancestry proportions and early CVD markers in an admixed Brazilian population.

Keywords

• type 1 diabetes
• cardiovascular disease
• calcium score
• carotid Doppler
• ankle-brachial index
• ancestry