Genes and Diabetes Increase Heart Problems

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Type 2 diabetes is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It increases a person’s risk of having a major cardiac event in their lifetime by two to four times compared to people without diabetes. Now researchers believe patients with type 2 diabetes along with a genetic variation have an increased risk for coronary artery disease (CAD).

Genetic variation on chromosome 9p21 has been associated with an increased risk of CAD. Now, researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston have found an even greater risk of CAD in patients with this genetic variation who also have type 2 diabetes with poor glycemic control.

The researchers conducted two studies, the first included 734 type 2 diabetes patients and the second included 475 type 2 diabetes patients. Participants in both studies were tested for a gene variation of chromosome 9p21 and characterized by their long-term glycemic control. Analysis showed the odds of developing CAD among participants with a 9p21 gene variant alone increased 2-fold, compared to patients with neither a 9p21 gene variant nor poor glycemic control caused by type 2 diabetes. The odds of developing CAD among participants with the 9p21 gene variant and poor glycemic control increased 4-fold.

A similar interaction between a 9p21 gene variant and poor glycemic control was observed with respect to the rate of death after 10 years.

SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008;300:2389-2397