Fasting and 2-hour postchallenge serum glucose measures and risk of incident cardiovascular events in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study.
BACKGROUND
The contributions of fasting and 2-hour postchallenge glucose level to cardiovascular events remain ill-defined, especially for nondiabetic adults. This study examined the relative predictive power of fasting and 2-hour glucose level on cardiovascular event risk.


METHODS
A total of 4014 community-dwelling adults 65 years or older who participated in the baseline visit of the Cardiovascular Health Study and who were without treated diabetes or previous myocardial infarction or stroke were eligible for analyses. Participants with treated diabetes at baseline were excluded. Incident myocardial infarction or stroke, or coronary death, was the outcome of interest. Age-, sex-, and race-adjusted proportional hazards regression models described individual and joint associations between baseline measures of fasting and 2-hour postchallenge glucose level and event risk.


RESULTS
There were 764 incident cardiovascular events during 8.5 years of follow-up. Fasting glucose level of 115 mg/dL (6.4 mmol/L) or more was associated with an increased cardiovascular risk (hazard ratio [HR], 1.66 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.39-1.98]) in adjusted analyses compared with fasting glucose level less than 115 mg/dL. Two-hour glucose level was associated with a linear risk (HR, 1.02 [95% CI, 1.00-1.04] per 10 mg/dL [0.6 mmol/L]) that included an additional increase in risk for 2-hour glucose level of 154 mg/dL (8.5 mmol/L) or more (HR, 1.29 [95% CI, 1.04-1.59]) in adjusted analyses. In joint fasting and 2-hour glucose models, only 2-hour glucose level remained predictive of event risk.


CONCLUSIONS
Two-hour glucose level was better than fasting glucose level alone at identifying older adults at increased risk of major incident cardiovascular events.
Smith
Nicholas L
NL
Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, 1730 Minor Ave, Suite 1360, Seattle, WA 98101, USA. nlsmith@u.washington.edu
Barzilay
Joshua I
JI
Shaffer
Douglas
D
Savage
Peter J
PJ
Heckbert
Susan R
SR
Kuller
Lewis H
LH
Kronmal
Richard A
RA
Resnick
Helaine E
HE
Psaty
Bruce M
BM
D000368:Aged; D001786:Blood Glucose; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005215:Fasting / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology
D001786:Blood Glucose