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Researchers here have found that Asians with diabetes and heart failure do worse in the hospital if they look thin but have a belly.
This challenges the assumption that diabetes is associated with obesity.
People in this group of diabetic and heart failure patients have a large waist-to-height ratio and a low body mass index, the National Heart Center of Singapore (NHCS) said on Friday.
These “lean fat” patients had the highest risk of poor hospital outcomes compared with other patients with diabetes and heart failure, NHCS researchers found.
NHCS researcher Dr. Chanchal Chandramouli said Friday: “The lean diabetic group was associated with the poorest quality of life and composite outcomes, with a 79% higher risk of hospitalization and mortality in one year, compared to other groups. “
This group of patients was compared with four other groups of patients in Asia who had diabetes and heart failure: the elderly, the young, those who are obese and have hypertension, and those with narrow arteries or reduced blood flow to the heart.
Professor Carolyn Lam, a senior consultant in the center’s cardiology department, said that knowing the poor prognosis of lean diabetic patients with heart failure and the lack of proven therapies to improve their prognosis, NHCS researchers firmly believe that preventing future heart disease risk among diabetic patients without symptoms is extremely critical.
Meanwhile, the researchers are also working on an Asia-wide study of preventative treatment for people with diabetes identified as being at high risk of developing heart disease.
The Asian Diabetes Outcome Prevention Trial (Adopt) study will see NHCS researchers working with their counterparts from Malaysia, China, Taiwan, India and the United Arab Emirates, the center said Friday.
The Adopt team aims to recruit 2,400 volunteers for their study, with a four-year follow-up.
Diabetic people at high risk for heart disease will be identified by blood biomarker-based screening tests for intensive preventive treatment.
Associate Professor David Sim, director of the NHCS heart failure program, said the treatment will involve prescribing drugs typically used to treat heart disease to patients who have been identified as high-risk but do not have pre-existing cardiovascular disease. .
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WHO IS AT RISK?
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Asians with diabetes and heart disease who:
• He looks thin but has a belly
• They have a large waist-to-height ratio
• You have a low body mass index
“If Adopt demonstrates that a simple blood test can identify people with diabetes who will benefit from intensive preventive therapy with commonly available drugs, the results may directly affect clinical practice not only in Singapore, but also in other parts of the world. “said Professor Lam. .
The study follows previous findings by NHCS researchers, who compared data from Asian and Caucasian heart failure patients between 2012 and 2016, that three times as many Asian patients as Caucasians had diabetes.
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