Revelation of subclinical left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus using 2016 ASE/ EACVI guidelines

Few studies have used the 2016 American Society of Echocardiography/ European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (ASE/EACVI) guidelines to detect left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) among asymptomatic normotensive type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients.

200 asymptomatic non-hypertensive diabetic cases and 281 controls matched for age and body mass index without evidence of arrhythmias, valvular, myocardial, pericardial or coronary artery disease underwent diastology assessment using 2 dimensional and M-mode echocardiography along with tissue Doppler imaging.

The presence of LVDD was seen to be significantly higher among the members of the diabetic group compared to the controls (35 vs. 14; P=0.001). The diabetics with LVDD had a longer duration of diabetes {8.04±7.75 vs. 5.27±5.49 years; P=0.04}, along with higher glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) {8.40±1.38 vs. 7.80±1.60% ; P=0.05}, fasting blood glucose (FBS) {211.35±78.15  vs. 187.89±107.90 mg/dL; P=0.009, 2 hour post prandial blood glucose} (PPBS) {237.89±107.9 vs. 211.35±78.15 mg/dL; P=0.04}, serum triglyceride (TG) {246.91±171.82 vs. 163.44±99.37 mg/dL; P=0.008} yet had lower serum very low density lipoprotein levels (VLDL) {19.74±15.01 vs. 27.61±17.89 mg/dL; P=0.01}.

This is one of the few studies so far to have demonstrated a higher occurrence of LVDD specifically among asymptomatic normotensive T2DM patients using the 2016 ASE/EACVI guidelines.